


Ready When You Are

by AvalonBay



Series: Avalon Series [4]
Category: Power Rangers, Power Rangers Turbo
Genre: F/M, Gen, changing teams, power transfer
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-22
Updated: 2018-07-22
Packaged: 2019-06-14 13:34:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 16
Words: 67,453
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15389850
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AvalonBay/pseuds/AvalonBay
Summary: [Sequel to These Walls]-Turbo- -Fourth in Avalon series- -Short Story- After losing someone she really loved, Avalon is trying to figure out what the future holds for her and how to move on. She's used to being on her own, she just didn't think that after everything she and her friends had been through she'd be alone so soon. But when Divatox and her Piranhatrons come to town she's ready to suit up and shift back into the responsibilities she can't leave behind.





	1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 01**

_Welcome Back to Angel Grove_

* * *

Avalon Oliver-Mitchell sighed heavily as she lifted her bag off of the baggage claim conveyer belt. Who knew she, for once, had actually packed too much stuff. The shifting weight of the bag combined with her shortened height—though she stood proudly at an even five feet—threatened to knock her over. OK, it might've been a good idea to listen to her sister, Bailey, when she tried to show her 'proper packing technique'.

 _Well, the little bugger didn't have to be so right about it._ Avalon turned on her heel and walked out of the baggage claim to the entrance to the airport. Now she had to take a taxi…take a taxi to where? The question made her stop in her tracks, eyebrows coming together in annoyance. If she was going to surprise everyone, being back in Angel Grove, she couldn't be seen by anyone or else the surprise would be ruined.

Avalon groaned and lightly slapped herself on the forehead.

She should've thought this through better.

With a heavy sigh, Avalon scratched the back of her neck and cautiously approached a taxi. Maybe she could get dropped off at the Youth Center. She could get Ernie to keep the secret then maybe he could help her find a hotel to stay in or something.

 _Then again…_ The orange ranger slowed, chewing her bottom lip. It was probably the first time in her entire life she wasn't confident about something.

Hotels were probably completely booked. Especially considering the amount of attention the martial arts tournament giving money to the Angel Grove Youth Shelter was getting. She heard about nothing but the tournament the last time she called her brother. Tommy always was one that had a one track mind.

"You look like you could use someone to talk to."

Avalon turned at the voice and grinned when she spotted Jason Lee Scott standing next to her, a bag slung over his shoulder. His arms were crossed as if he had been walking along with her without her noticing, and he probably had been, she was so wrapped up in her thoughts.

"Hey!" Avalon reached up, stepping on her tip-toes, and wrapped her arms around his neck, giving him a hug. Jason hugged her back just as tightly, being careful not to squish her into his bag. "What are you doing here? I thought you were already home."

Jason's smile was infectious. "I stayed a couple extra days," he said. "Trini wouldn't let me go before I saw what the bath houses were like." He rolled his head, his smile widening. "And at the risk of potentially getting punched, it was an experience I'll never forget."

Avalon rolled her eyes "That's what I wanted to hear, Jay, how much y enjoyed the bath houses. How _is_ Trini? I haven't talked to her in a bit. Not since last month, yeah?"

"She's doing great," Jason replied. "Between you and me, I don't think she ever wants to leave Vietnam. She enjoyed it that much." He paused for a moment, and then asked the question anyway. "How's Billy?"

Avalon's smile faded though she tried her best to keep it up. Instead, her dark eyes darkened even further. "I don't know," she said honestly. "I haven't been able to get a hold of him." She shrugged, trying to downplay the situation. "Though I'm sure he's busy with his studies and everything so…" She shrugged again, turning away.

That wasn't the entire story and she was sure he knew it wasn't. But how pathetic was it that after they defeated the Machine Empire, Jason lost his gold powers and Billy left to go to college, she ran away with her tail between her legs? No. That wasn't the only reason; she hadn't seen her mother in a while and knew it was the best time to go back to Australia to visit. She had given up being a ranger. While she still had her Zeo morpher and the ability to summon it (she tested it enough times) she didn't expect it to go off again anytime soon.

The transition back to a regular human was hard enough. She didn't know how Bailey did it.

"Oh." Jason frowned. "I'm sorry."

"It's alright." Avalon waved a hand. "Like I said, I'm sure he's working hard…studying hard. Besides, I have to get into that mindset soon, too, if I'm going to be going to uni."

"Is that why you're here?" He changed the subject.

Avalon's eyes softened, acknowledging she was glad for a different topic to talk about. "No. I came back to surprise everyone at the martial arts tournament, maybe help out with the Youth Shelter…"

"Me too!" Jason's smile was back. "Like I said, if Trini didn't have me stay a bit longer, I would have been back already. But Tommy mentioned the tournament to me and I figured he'd probably kill me if I missed it, you know?" He suddenly thought about what she had said. "Surprise? No one knows you're here."

"Nope." Avalon popped the 'p' on the word, suddenly appearing annoyed. "And stupid me, I didn't think through where I'm going to stay if I want to _keep_ it a secret."

"Well that's easy," Jason said. "Just come and stay with Emily and me until the tournament and then you can go back home. We have plenty of space." The sly smile was back on his face. "Sure, you may need to wear ear plugs—"

"—Ugh!" Avalon slapped her hands over her ears, her nose wrinkling. The last thing she needed to know the details of was how Jason's relationship with Emily was going. Especially since the last time she and Avalon had spoken during the ski trip there had been tension between the two. Since then she aacted as civilly around Emily as she could before she left Angel Grove. "There's this thing called, TMI, boofhead. Warn me about it next time." She lowered her hands from her ears. "You and Emily moved in together? That must've been a pretty big step in the relationship, yeah?"

Jason nodded. He looked like he wanted to say more but downplayed ias well. "We're making it work," he replied. "But really, just stay with us. She won't mind. Honest."

Avalon thought about it. Bailey wasn't going to be back in Angel Grove for a few weeks, she could call her adoptive parents, the Olivers, when she got there, to let them know she got in OK, and she could still keep the surprise if only Jason and Emily knew she was there.

"Fine," she finally said then held up a finger. "But, if I hear anything, even one sound, coming from you two, I'm out of there, Rudolph."

Jason rolled his eyes, laughed, holding up his left hand. "I promise." With a tilt of his head, he motioned for Avalon to follow him out of the airport. The two walked along until they found Jason's corvette and placed their bags in the trunk before getting inside. Avalon shoved a few towels and water bottles into the backseat before climbing into the seat and pulling the door shut behind her. "Yeah, sorry about that, I've been meaning to clear out the car for a while."

"I can see that," Avalon said. She leaned forward and picked up a water bottle. "Though, honestly, I'm not surprised that you have nothing but martial arts gear around here."

"You can't expect me to give it up," Jason said. He glanced over his shoulder before turning on the car and peeling out of the parking spot and out of the parking lot, heading towards Angel Grove. "I've spent too much time training for it."

"You're good at it too," Avalon agreed. "It obviously means a lot to you."

Jason shrugged modestly. "I've been doing it since I was a kid, the only reason I'd stop is if I absolutely couldn't do it anymore."

"What about school?" Avalon crossed her leg at the knee, turning and resting the side of her head against the headrest. "Have you thought about going to college?"

"Have you?"

"That's why I'm back, actually," Avalon admitted. "I'm looking at some colleges to apply to; Mum, Bay and I were studying them while I was out there. There's a couple I'd like to look at, but I might just stay in Angel Grove. I mean, high school's not over yet, not for another few months." She gave him a meaningful smile. "I reckon it's started to turn into home for me since I've been here."

Jason turned and smiled back at her. "Good to hear."

The two continued to talk about school and what they would likely major and minor in and whether they'd live at home or in a dorm. Finally, Jason pulled into the parking lot of the apartment building and cut off the engine to the car. The two former rangers got out and went to the trunk, retrieving their bags and Jason led her up to the apartment.

"Em?" Jason called as he opened the door. He moved aside to let Avalon inside, and then closed the door behind him. "Hey, I'm back!"

Avalon twisted her bag around to her back, looking around at the apartment. There were some instances that Jason did live there—the martial arts tapes, the painted pictures of Japanese kanji, and the trophies lining a bookshelf to her left. Otherwise she could see some flowery throw pillows and other instances that showed that Emily lived there as well. Though the colors were muted grays, blacks, and whites with only a few instances of red and orange thrown about. That did seem to be Emily's favorite color and it worked with red well.

"Hey, Handsome!" Emily came from around the corner, her golden locks moved to one side of her neck in sexy waves; rosy lips were stretched into a bright smile, revealing her white, Chiclet teeth. As she neared him, she lifted her arms, motioning she was going to give him a hug. Jason slid his bag off his shoulder and onto the ground, wrapping his arms around her waist, and lifting her up off the floor, hugging her back.

Emily leaned in and gave Jason a kiss, which he reciprocated before placing her back down on the ground gain. "I missed you," she said.

"I missed you too," Jason replied. He turned and motioned to Avalon. "Look who I bumped into at the airport on the way back."

Avalon smiled and waved at Emily, who surprise her by smiling back before looping her arms around Jason's waist and leaning into him. Maybe the time apart from each other made things even more civil than she expected.

"I hope you don't mind," Avalon said slowly. "I was hoping to be able to surprise my brother and the others back at the martial arts expo for the Youth Shelter. Jay said it would be alright if I stayed here, but I figured I'd run it by you first." She smirked over at Jason before looking back at Emily. "I mean, you wear the pants in the relationship, yeah?"

Emily smiled and laughed.

Jason rolled his eyes.

"You got that right," Emily agreed. She tucked some of her blonde waves behind an ear. "That's alright with me. I'll show you were you can stay." Removing her arms from her boyfriend she headed down the cramped hallway to a guest room. "And then there's the bathroom in the next room."

"Thanks," Avalon said as she looked around.

"Here's your bag." Jason walked into the room, gently placing her bag on the bed. He turned back to her with a gentle smile. "I'm sure the flight must've taken a lot out of you. Emily and I'll give you some time to sleep." He reached out and took his girlfriend's hand, gently leading her out of the room.

Avalon called her thanks once more and waited until the bedroom door closed behind them before reaching into her pocket and pulling out her cell phone.

Still no message from Billy.

How hard could it have been to pick up a phone and call back? Or to send an e-mail? The two of them had been so close when he was still around. She had fallen in love with him and he had fallen in love with her. It was supposed to be so easy. How could it have all come to a stop just because he left?

She just never thought things would turn out this way. Him going way and she having become so invested in him that she couldn't find her normal self anymore. Maybe they did need to spend the time apart. She just wished she knew if she had done something wrong.

With a pained sigh, Avalon curled up into a ball in the middle of the bed. Sleep had claimed her, haunting her with dreams where she constantly ended up alone.


	2. Water Based Attack

**Chapter 02**

_Water Based Attack  
_

* * *

When Jason awoke the next morning, he was briefly confused as to where he was. He hoped the arm that was draped over his waist wasn't of one of the Vietnamese natives he had met, if not that he had fulfilled his nightmare of slipping in the bathhouse and knocked himself out. Or else that one drink Trini had given him had worked wonders on relaxing him…

Twisting to face the other way Jason then heard a quiet, feminine sounding sigh and remembered that he was in his apartment, in his own bed, with his girlfriend. It took him a couple of minutes of telling himself that until it finally sunk in that he was indeed back in Angel Grove. Soon was the martial arts tournament for the Angel Grove Youth Shelter, when he would be able to surprise everyone that he was back.

It was a hard thing for him to fall back into, he realized, of being normal. He had done so the first time, after having turned over his red ranger powers to Rocky so that he could go visit his uncle who had OD'd. He needed that trip, to see what would've happened if he continued to take steroids back when he thought he needed them. Staying out there had given him a sense of being normal, where he didn't have to run around juggling his life with fighting monsters and putting his life in danger.

A big part of him had reveled in that freedom but a bigger part of him was bored, lonely, and missed the constant drama that fighting Rita's and Zedd's brought along.

Calling Trini and Zack—Zack when he finally got hold of him—didn't fill the void as they ended up commiserating over the lives they had left and how much they missed it. Then calling his friends as they were back in Angel Grove reminded him of how much he had been missing. When he returned to Angel Grove and found they had gotten new powers, he was excited for them. Then came the day Billy needed to hand over the Gold Zeo powers that had been bestowed upon him by Evie Caldwell.

Jason jumped at the opportunity to help them out. Not only because he still had a feeling that he was supposed to protect Angel Grove from whomever threatened it, but because he felt the need to fill that empty hole in him that it left behind. The same emptiness he had just woken up to.

This was different; he had his powers drained away this time. He hadn't given them up willingly this time, he had to sit back and feel his powers drain away over a period of time until it was finally gone…just like Tommy had to go through when he was the green ranger.

But Tommy had been able to come back with new powers and move on to lead the team. Nonetheless, Jason was stuck with nowhere to go and now he had to think about the future. Instead, he focused his attention on his budding relationship with Emily.

As if she had read his mind, Emily's eyes fluttered open and she gave him a sleepy smile before leaning into him and angling her head up, giving him a kiss. Morning-breath be damned, she knew how to wake him up.

She must've known it too, for she gave a naughty giggle, dragging a finger down his bare chest. "Good morning," she purred.

"Good morning to you, too," Jason replied. He leaned forward and gave her a kiss on the forehead. "You slept well."

"Mm. You didn't." Emily lifted her head and rested her cheek against her upraised palm, studying the bags under his eyes. "What's going on? You were tossing and turning all night."

Jason ran a hand over his face, slightly turning away from his girlfriend. He really wanted to be able to talk to her about what was going on, but he couldn't. Not only was it that she wouldn't understand, but it was because she _couldn't_ understand. She wasn't to know that he had been a power ranger though he had his suspicions that she knew about his secret identity.

A sly smile or a simple 'gold' comment thrown somewhere made him worry, though she had never said or done anything otherwise that would confirm it for him.

Besides, if he told her he was a power ranger then…something would happen. Even without the powers of the Gold Zeo ranger, he knew the rules Zordon had bestowed upon him the first time were always going to live with him. It was what had driven Zack away from the rangers in the first place and what continued to keep him an arm's length away from his friends. Or former friends as the case may be. In a way to protect Avalon and to get her former gang members off his and the other ranger's backs, he had gone to meet with them under the guise of returning the weapons they had given her.

Instead of telling them to leave her alone, he had lost his temper and beaten them up, putting an even bigger target than anyone could have imagined on his back.

Not only did it make him leave Angel Grove to make sure he didn't bring danger to anyone else, but he had broken one of Zordon's rules and he had gotten his powers completely taken away, given to his replacement, Adam Park. Not only did they lose a good ranger, but Jason had ended up losing one of his best friends. Knowing there was that sort of consequence that would befall upon him, not only if one of the wrong people heard his confession, Jason couldn't imagine bringing Emily into that sort of danger.

No.

He couldn't tell her.

"It's nothing," he said as convincingly as he could. "I just couldn't get to sleep. Must be the jet lag." He leaned in and gave her another kiss. "Don't worry about me. I'll be fine after I get some exercise in or something."

"If you say so," Emily said. She let out a content sigh and placed her hand fully on his chest, smirking when she felt his heart rate increase. "But let me help you with that exercise."

Jason smiled and allowed her to kiss him, wrapping her arms around her petite form.

Forty minutes later Jason finished his shower and pulled on his clothes before going out to the kitchen to get some breakfast. He found Avalon sitting on the counter, gently rubbing her shoulder as she read the newspaper spread across her lap. Jason chuckled and said, "I see you've made yourself at home."

"I'm just waiting for brekkie," Avalon said. She pointed to the toaster whose coils were burning red. "Otherwise I'm trying to find something to do before we surprise the others." She turned the page over and shuddered at the sight of the picture of a clown that appeared in front of her. "And I'm _not_ going to the fair."

Jason laughed as he opened the refrigerator and started to look inside. "I can't believe you're scared of clowns. I've seen you fight monsters, take a bullet, and do whatever was needed to make sure your sister and friends were safe. But _clowns_?"

"They're creepy," Avalon defended herself. "And they don't stop smiling, and it's fucked up." She continued to rub her shoulder. "You're up early," she remarked.

"Couldn't sleep," Jason replied. "I've had a lot on my mind. Jet lag. In fact, I was planning on going to the gym or something later."

"From what I've heard, you've already got your workout for the day in." Avalon looked over at the sound of the toaster popping up her breakfast, making her jump. "Besides, it's your first day back in Angel Grove after being away for so long, why don't you just sit with Emily."

"Yeah." Emily announced her presence in the kitchen, wrapping her arms around Jason's waist, causing the ex-ranger to smile and put an arm around her shoulders. She had just gotten out of the shower; her wet hair had comb tracks through it, the ends leaving a damp spot on the shoulders of her red tie front blouse. "Spend the day with me. I haven't seen you in weeks."

"I'd love to, but don't you have to work today?" Jason reminded her.

Emily pouted, her red painted lips pursing as she did so. She took a step away from her boyfriend and crossed her arms. Turning to Avalon, she made a show of rolling her eyes. "Can you believe how mature this one is? He's a neat freak too. You'd _think_ I'd be able to find a guy that's a guy. I feel like I'm living with a girl sometimes."

"Oh you got that feeling too?" Avalon's eyebrows rose as Emily's smile widened. "When we were in school together it was like he was my dad. If he wasn't reminding me to do my homework, he was constantly badgering me about staying out of trouble."

Jason made a sound of amusement. He went over to one of the cabinets and pulled out a box of cereal. Opening the top, he plunged his hand inside and took out a handful, shoving them into his mouth. "You got us into more trouble than any of the rest of us could ever think to get into."

"That's because you're a goody two-shoes, yeah?"

Jason moved his lower jaw to the side. "You'd know a lot about that, wouldn't you?"

As soon as the words left his mouth there was a brief moment of silence that filled the kitchen. Not only had he, in a way, insulted Avalon, but he had also badmouthed his girlfriend as well. In fact, she had joined a sort of biker gang when she had fist moved to Angel Grove and became the girlfriend of the leader of the biker gang. They drove around the city terrorizing the residents and crashed Ernie's beach club that he had just opened that day.

Jason and the rest of the rangers had been there to watch the whole thing and told them off. That was the first time that Jason had seen Emily and while he had been physically attracted her from the get go, he was concerned over his friend's hard work being put to rest. Jason managed to talk to Emily and found that she didn't enjoy being in the biker gang and that they were just the first people hat had become friends with her.

Much like the Vipers and how Avalon had fallen into her gang lifestyle.

However Emily had the fortune to get away from the situation faster than the orange ranger could.

Jason looked over at Emily, who was giving him a disapproving look. Her face was hardened, the muscle around her neck tightened. _Damn._ How could he have said something like that? It wasn't how he would have normally reacted to light teasing. He was used to it anyway, whether it was from the ranger's making fun of his constant martial arts training or because of his constant 'do gooder' attitude.

He really _hadn't_ meant to say it. Maybe he was a bit touchy? Still trying to work through everything? As soon as the thought entered his head he hated himself for it. He didn't appreciate excuses, especially when it was something someone needed to take responsibility for. He couldn't always make an excuse over having lost his powers. He wasn't the first one it happened to and he probably wouldn't be the last. He had to stop dwelling and try to stay focused on the future.

Even if he wasn't sure what he wanted from it.

"Look, guys, I'm sorry, I didn't mean that," he said. "It just slipped out, it wasn't right for me to say."

There was a long moment of silence before Emily addressed Avalon once more. "And he always has to apologize like a gentleman."

Avalon nodded.

The blonde girl turned back to her boyfriend. "I'll only accept your apology if you make me dinner tonight," she said. Jason smiled and nodded. "Great, now that I have that out of the way, I can go shopping after dinner. Do you want to come, Av?"

Jason was at least glad the two were getting along with him being the common enemy. Or, at least, they were trying. It wasn't easy having two people that didn't particularly like each other under the same roof. )That's what he worried about a few minutes after having offered the place to stay the night before).

Avalon smirked. "Fair chance trying to keep me from a sale," she said. She finally dropped her hand from her shoulder and rolled her neck. "I don't have anything else to do today anyway. Buckley's something'll come up."

"Great, I'll meet you right after work then," Emily said. She looked at her watch. "In fact, I'm running late. I'll just eat once I get there." She gave Jason another kiss on the cheek. "I'll see you later." She ducked out of the kitchen and leaving the apartment.

"You must've done something wrong since she practically ran out of here, Rudolph," Avalon remarked once the door closed behind his girlfriend.

Jason stuck his tongue out at her and she snickered before turning her attention back to her breakfast. Humming to herself, she gently kicked her legs back and forth as she spread butter on her toast. Jason chuckled as he watched her. She had always been mistaken for a little kid; only coming up at five feet tall and cheeks of freckles didn't help much.

"I have something we could do today," he said to her.

"If it has anything to do with clowns, mate, you can forget it."

"No. Why don't we go scuba diving? I'm certified and you said you've never gone before."

Avalon's nose wrinkled. "How do I know you're not planning on drowning me?" She asked suspiciously.

Jason closed the box of cereal and gently tossed it onto the counter before dusting off his hands. "Because Tommy would kill me." And as much as his former leader was his best friend, Jason knew how insanely protective Tommy was of everyone in his life. If he knew that Jason had put his adoptive sister in any sort of danger, it wouldn't be long before Jason 'disappeared'. It was very much like he had been with Kimberly and Trini as they grew up. He never liked the idea of them getting hurt and would pose as their boyfriend (Kim more often than Trini) whenever the time came.

He had thrown out the threat that he would hurt whomever they would be going out with if something went wrong, but he rarely ever had to follow up on that threat. It must've been the same idea.

"Besides, I feel like I have to do _something_ or else I'm going to go crazy," he continued.

Compassion flashed across Avalon's face. "I know the feeling," she agreed, glancing down at her wrist where her communicator sat as quiet as ever.

"Cool. So let me just check out the weather reports and we can get going," Jason said. Avalon nodded again and Jason turned on his heel and walked out of the kitchen to go back to his room, where a computer sat in the corner.

Turning it on, he stared at the background of the computer screen of him and his friends on the beach after having fought off Tough Tusks, the monster created from Emily's necklace. The rangers' arms were around each other and they smiled brightly at the camera. In, fact, if he remembered correctly, it was Emily or Ernie that had taken the photo. A wave of a feeling he couldn't put his finger on washed over him and he immediately reached forward, turning off the monitor.

Spinning around in his seat he got up and left the room.

They could just play it by ear.

Besides, there was someone else who was going to join them and he didn't want to let them down.

* * *

Kimberly's and Avalon's excited squeals continued to ring in Jason's ears as he pulled on his scuba gear. He should've been prepared with the surprise considering how long it had been since Kimberly had been in Angel Grove. But on one of their phone calls to each other Jason had mentioned the martial arts tournament and she said she had heard about it and wanted to go, too.

Keeping _that_ a secret was harder than keeping the secret of going to the martial arts tournament in the first place.

"I can't believe you're here," Avalon said once she released the former pink ranger from her hug. "And you look great, too."

"I feel great," Kimberly replied with a bright smile. She pulled her ponytail behind her tanned shoulders and smiled peacefully. "Coach Schmidt has really been helping me out. He's kept his promise about me practicing gymnastics as long as I worked to get better." She sighed, looking back and forth between her and Jason. "And I definitely feel better."

"You're really starting to look like yourself again, Kim," Jason added.

"As opposed to what? An ogre?" Kimberly teased back, causing Avalon to laugh.

Jason rolled his eyes.

Clearly he wasn't going to win against any of the women in his life that day.

The three continued to chat as Jason directed their boat out into the ocean and dropped anchor. The three quickly fastened their scuba gear and dropped down into the water.

Jason enjoyed being under water as much as he enjoyed looking at it. Nothing was a better experience to him than being able to see the wildlife Angel Grove had to offer. In fact, whenever his relatives or other tourists came to the city he would suggest they go scuba diving if not snorkeling. It was something no one should pass up.

The water had a way of calming people and helping them realize their problems were miniscule compared to the beauty that was around them. Even being under the water at that moment, gently kicking his legs to propel himself forward, Jason forgot about everything that was bothering him, instead focusing on the colorful wildlife that surrounded him, Kimberly, and Avalon. He turned around to make sure the girls were still following him and smiled, watching as they moved their flashlights around to watch the school of fish that swam by.

Kimberly's moving flashlight was what had caught his attention to the danger that was coming their way. He hadn't noticed the fishlike robot until it was too late. All of a sudden he felt a hand clamp down on his shoulder and something twist him back and forth. Panic immediately erupted through his body as he lashed out with his elbows, trying to hit whatever had grabbed him in the face. His movements underwater were sluggish and no matter how hard he tried to get away, the grasp was still on his shoulder.

Silver bubbles erupted around him, swirling and turning, clouding his view. Jason was struck in the stomach at the same time his regulator popped free from his mouth. Or rather, was pulled from his mouth. He immediately clamped his mouth shut but knew he wouldn't be able to last long under the water. Even then the edges of his vision were already starting to darken. The blow to his stomach hadn't helped matters at all. Normally he would've been able to hold his breath for almost three minutes, but he had most of it expelled from his lungs right when his lifeline was taken away.

Jason continued to try and fight off whatever had him and his last thought before he slipped into unconsciousness was that he had failed.

…

..

.

Jason suddenly awoke with a sharp intake of air. He flailed his arms, trying to knock off whoever had him. Whoever had attacked him underwater still had him! He wasn't going to allow them to get away with it. It wasn't until he heard a soft groaning sound did he realize that no one was on him and he wasn't drowning. The adrenaline started to wear off, but his heart continued to thump painfully against his chest. He felt sick.

He understood what that meant.

They had risen too quickly.

From the depth they had been at, inches from dusting the ocean floor, having been dragged around and taken up, whoever had attacked him probably didn't care much for keeping him safe. He was going to have to be careful for the next couple of minute to be sure he wasn't in any other danger.

Jason flipped over onto his back and realized everything other than his diving mask had been taken off. His black rash guard, swim trunks, and water shoes were still on him. Everything but his underwater diving meter was gone. Even the little knife he usually had strapped to his ankle was missing.

The groan sounded again and Jason whirled around to see Avalon push herself back onto her knees. She sat there for a few tense moments, trying to catch her breath. Kimberly was already sitting on her heels, looking around their metal hold.

"You OK, Avie?" Jason asked her. "Kim?"

Avalon nodded.

"I'm fine," Kimberly replied, coughing lightly.

The three slowly stood up and looked around their prison, which is exactly what it was. The dingy brown walls were held together with steel rivets that had been placed with precision. There was a large, circular panel on one wall, the other holding what looked like a porthole. They couldn't hear anyone else. They were alone.

And judging by the long, loud groaning sound that periodically sounded, Jason had to guess they were being held underwater somewhere.

He had thought his worst nightmare was being powerless to help someone in any way he could, now it was being stuck in a watery grave.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 03**

* * *

Rocky DeSantos wasn't someone who normally allowed having a bad day get to him. And if it were a competition that day would've been the worst day he's ever had.

It started out with finding out that he had gotten rejected from one of the colleges he applied to. Yes, there were others that he hadn't heard back from yet but it was the one he had placed at the top of his list. His mother had comforted him the best she could and he loved her for it, but he couldn't stand the strong sense of disappointment that seemed to follow him around the house. His father, on the other hand, decided to act like it hadn't happened.

That was his answer to everything that went wrong; pretend to that nothing happened. He got busted for drugs and went to jail? Once released he went back into his family's open arms and moved to be the head of the family as if the passing years had been nothing but a bad dream. Daniel DeSantos continued to move along as if life was shiny and perfect.

But the consistent waves of disappointment only caused Rocky to do the one thing that made him feel even lower than ever. He relapsed and started cutting again. It had become so easy to hide despite Adam knowing about. That made him feel even worse, he had promised Adam that he would stop, that he would get help for it. But the feelings became too overwhelming and the next thing he knew he locked himself in the bathroom and had a bloodied razor in his hand.

That knocked him out f his trance. He quickly bandaged up and went to hang out with his brothers and sisters before heading to the arena to practice with his friends before the big martial arts tournament that would save the Youth Center. The pressure of that wasn't helping much either. His movements were wide and sporadic, nothing was hitting, and it was just making him even more frustrated as the seconds passed.

A volcano waiting to go off.

Sighing, Rocky leaned back against the ropes of the wrestling ring being used for their fighting space and shook his head. He watched as Tommy and Oliver their coach shuffled back and forth with the leader of the rangers doing everything perfectly. As usual. Even Adam Park was having an amazing day during their practice with Rocky lagging behind.

"Are you alright, man?" Adam asked, leaning against the ropes next to him. He was breathing heavily, pulling his longer hair back out of his face. "You look like you're really—"

"—Sucking?" Rocky interrupted. He took a swig of his water bottle ignoring the disapproving look Adam was giving him. "Yeah, I'm really aware of that."

"No, man, you just look like you're really distracted. And then going back into that it's just making you try too hard to get everything right."

"We have to get things right, or else we're going to lose." Rocky shook his head once more, wiping sweat that trickled down with the heel of his palm. "And if we lose we're not going to be able to save the shelter. I don't think anyone wants that."

"I get it, but you're not going to help anyone if you throw your back out or something," Adam insisted. He reached out and grabbed onto Rocky's shoulder, holding him still. Rocky shook his head once more but didn't reply. "What else is going on?"

"Nothing."

"You're my best friend, Rock; I can tell when something's bothering you."

A sardonic smile came across Rocky's face. He reached up and used his thumb to scratch his forehead. Then his smile dropped and turned back to Rocky with a light shrug. "Honestly, I'm just having a bad day. Just a lot of things to think about. Graduation is coming up fast and the future isn't as far off as we originally thought you know?"

"Yeah, I get it," Adam agreed.

The boys looked over as their coach called for a break and Tommy walked over, pulling off his white bandana. Breathing heavily, he placed his hands on his hips and looked back and forth between the two. "What's going on?" He asked.

"I'm having a bad day," Rocky said quickly, running a hand through his hair. He noticed Adam's eyes shoot towards the inside of his wrist and narrow. "A lot of stuff is going on and I can't seem to shake it off while doing this."

Tommy nodded. "Yeah, I've been there. I think we all know how hard it is to keep up our ranger duties while acting like everything is perfectly fine everywhere else." He shook his head and took a long swig of water, ponytail shaking. "Can you believe it's been three months since we defeated the Machine Empire and nothing's happened since then?"

"Can you believe that you're tempting the fates by even saying that out loud?" Rocky shot back. He and Adam laughed and exchanged a high-five while Tommy rolled his eyes.

"I'm being serious. That was one of the hardest battles we'd ever had to fight and there's been nothing since then. Honestly, I think I'm starting to get a little bit bored without a putty, a tenga, or a cog to fight." Tommy rested his hands atop his head. "But at the same time it makes me wonder if this is ever going to stop or if this is something that's going to go on for a while."

Adam raised an eyebrow. "Are you thinking about giving it up?"

"I don't know, man. I mean there's so many things that we can be doing. Graduation is coming up…I love Angel Grove, I love living here, I love what we do. I can't imagine what we'd do if we weren't able to save the Youth Center." He shook his head. "But to know that things are _this_ peaceful…?"

"I'm telling you you're going to jinx it," Rocky warned him.

He understood what Tommy meant, though. Their last battle with the Machine Empire had been hard. After breaking Tommy out of his trance, they had fought three, long, hard days against the Machine Empire. Round after round they fought against cogs and the villains that had been plaguing them for the last couple of months. Some they destroyed easily, others took much longer. Some of their own had been very injured and needed time to recuperate before fighting once more. It had been the hardest battle they ever fought.

Angel Grove was starting to make its way back to the bright bustling city it used to be. Construction was moving fast, the city officials were consistently meeting up to improve their evacuation plans and emergency protocols which, according to Bulk and Skull, was coming along well. Parents weren't as afraid to let their kids out to play, students were reminded of their protocols in case the warning sirens went off, and everyone was smiling and greeting each other on the streets once more. It was getting to become the city that many traveled far and wide to see again. And yet there was the truth that he and his friends knew.

"Yeah, you say you're bored of it now and then an alien space ship will drop out of the sky," Adam agreed.

"Or a space dumpster," Rocky added. He tilted his head to the side. "Did Rita really come down in a space dumpster?"

"That's what I hear," Tommy agreed. The three chuckled and watched the others that were working out around them. Those who thought of nothing but their jobs, their families, and what they were going to do for lunch. Rocky glanced down at the communicator that sat on his wrist, the communicator that had been silent so long he thought it had broken.

There were numerous times he would break his own silence and speak into the communicator hoping to hear Zordon, Alpha, or one of the rangers respond. It was easier than using a cell phone. And every time he got a response relief washed over him once more.

"Hey! Enough of the break guys, let's get back to work!" Coach Briggs declared. He gazed at them with a no-nonsense frown. "The shelter isn't going to save itself with you all just standing around there like that. Sparring, Tommy and Adam against Rocky, let's go!"

Rocky moved his lower jaw to the side and dropped his water bottle in the corner of the ring. Great. Just great. He knew Coach Briggs just wanted to work on him a little bit more but to go against _both_ of them? Adam patted Rocky on the shoulder as they moved to take their positions, Tommy first and Adam waiting in the wings. Coach Briggs called for them to start fighting and Adam and Rocky stared out in aw whirlwind. Rocky did his best to fend himself against Adam but found himself pushed backwards into the ropes more times that he wanted. At one point he was nearly flipped onto his back, but twisted in the air in enough time to land on his hands and flip back onto his feet.

Rocky fought back as hard as he could. But then Tommy took Adam's place and he knew he was done for. Not only was Tommy the best martial artist he had gotten to know, but his movements were precise and quick as lightning. Rocky had a solid defensive base towards his martial arts training and while it normally kept the two at a stalemate, he found himself losing fairly quickly. Tommy knocked Rocky over with a quick combination of a high punch to a low kick. Slamming to the mat, Rocky slapped it with the flat of his palm, allowing the sting.

"Focus Rocky, focus!" Coach Briggs demanded as Rocky got back to his feet. Angered, the blue ranger placed his hands on his hips and paced back and forth. Instead of having them spar once more, Coach Briggs picked up a mat and strapped it to his hand, slapping it with the palm of the other one. "Spinning heel kick my hand."

Rocky moved into position and took a second to catch his breath. Then he spun around in a quick circle, leaning his weight on his back leg, and brought up his front leg to strike the mat. But he missed and dropped to the mat once more, landing hard on his side. But he quickly got back to his feet to try once more.

"Rocky, don't you think, maybe you're trying too hard?" Adam pointed out from behind him.

Rocky rolled his eyes at the concern evident in Adam's voice. _He always has to do that,_ Rocky thought. _Always has to worry about everyone else when he should just mind his own damn business. "_ Or maybe I'm not trying hard enough."

He turned back to Coach Briggs and took a deep breath to calm his senses. He stared directly in the middle of the bag. That's where his foot was going to connect when he made the right move. He steeled himself, feeling every muscle in his body tense, and started to do the spinning kick once more. But something wrong. Whether he tried too hard, jumped too high, or didn't shift his weight correctly but something went wrong. One minute Rocky found himself turning towards the bag, the next second he found himself flying over the ropes and landing hard on the concrete below.

A guttural sound escaped his lips the second he connected the breath knocked out of him. He took a deep breath back in but found that he couldn't breathe out. Throat muscles locked he started to panic, hoping to breathe in once more. Everything around him was a flurry of movement. He heard his friends should his name and footsteps head his way. Shifting his eyes upwards he found Tommy and Adam kneeling over him.

"Rocky, are you alright?" Adam gasped.

"My back," Rocky managed to ground out. "I think I hurt my back."

"Hey, can we get some help over here?" Tommy shouted. "Someone call an ambulance." Then he kneeled down next to Rocky once more. "It's going to be alright, just relax."

Rocky nodded and took in another breath. This time he held it as long as he could. Held it, held, and slowly released it. His lungs immediately stopped burning as he relaxed, but then his back became enflamed. Something definitely was wrong with his back. Every time he moved his neck even a little, fire seized his muscles.

"Man, I'm so stupid," Rocky gasped. "I shouldn't have…I shouldn't have ever…"

"It's okay, Rocky, don't worry about it," Adam said to him. He pressed his hand down onto Rocky's shoulder to keep him from rising up off the ground. "Just don't move. Everything's going to be okay."

Rocky nodded and closed his eyes.

.

..

...

Tanya Sloane had been with her best friend Katherine Hillard when Rocky had his accent. As a matter of fact they were on their way to the training facility when Rocky's bad day boiled over. One of the things that had been mandatory for all senior students at Angel Grove High School was to fulfill a certain amount of community service hours. They decided to work at the Angel Grove Youth Shelter where orphans, foster children, and other kids who had nowhere else to stay lived.

That day they were taking the kids to the training facility to let them get an inside peek on those who were competing in the martial arts tournament to win money to keep the shelter open. The bus ride had been a bit uneventful; she and Kat sang as many kids songs they could remember to the kids—of which she had to learn over a few months showing drastic differences of her life in Africa to America. What did a song about rowing your boat mean anyway?

But there was one kid who wasn't singing along with the others; Justin Stewart. Instead of getting into the happy atmosphere he sat in his aisle seat staring sullenly ahead. And no matter how much Kat tried to include him he would simply say he 'didn't feel like singing' and would turn away. Tanya and Kat had been warned about Justin before starting their volunteer hours; his mother had died, his father was always away on business and Justin was left alone to stay in the youth shelter.

The only thing that caught his attention and managed to bring him out of his funk was watching martial arts that Tommy, Rocky, and Adam practiced. Rocky had even become a sort of big brother to him as they continued to go. But even today he didn't seem so excited. And it couldn't have helped when the group arrived at the training facility just in time to see Rocky being carefully placed on a stretcher with Tommy and Adam standing around him.

"Rocky!" Justin called as soon as he saw him.

"Oh no," Tanya gasped. She glanced over at Kat, whose eyes had widened as well and the two immediately flew down the steps towards their fallen friend, instructing the kids to stay still. "What happened?" Tanya asked once she was in ear-shot. She came to a stop at Adam's side and grabbed onto his arm. "Is he going to be okay?"

"We don't know," Adam said. He reached up and placed his hand atop of Tanya's, almost absentmindedly. "He's being taken to the hospital right now to be looked at."

"What happened?" Kat repeated.

"He's been distracted all day, wasn't doing his best. And he accidentally went over the top of the ropes," Tommy explained. He shook his head. "Man, I feel so awful." He motioned between himself and Adam. "We were going to head over to the hospital after we tell his parents what's going on."

"Okay, we'll get the kids back to the shelter and we'll meet you there."

Tanya started to pull away from Adam then got a good look at his face. He was hiding it very well but it was clear from the way he stared at the floor that he was just as worried. Rocky was his best friend and despite them all being a team he wouldn't want anything to happen to him.

"Hey, everything's going to be okay, Adam," Tanya reassured him. She rubbed his arm. "This is Rocky we're talking about, he's strong."

"I know." He finally lifted his gaze from the floor and gave her a small smile. "Thanks, Tanya."

So she and Kat did as they promised. They brought the kids back to the youth shelter and immediately headed over to the hospital where they had to wait to hear any kind of news. Sitting in the chairs outside of his room the four played card games, told jokes, did homework, guessed where their senior trip was going to be, and slept.

Tanya had never been in a hospital like that before. Where she was from they didn't have buildings that big that had so many people to heal them. Normally they had to go to another village or into the city to get the medical attention that was serious. But here was a place where anyone could get the best attention they could get.

All of those people and a building that big and things still moved that slowly? Tanya shook her head as she rested her cheek atop of her open palm. It had been a few hours already and still no word back on it. Every doctor they asked they would say they'd have news soon and would get back to them. But this was just ridiculous. Tommy and Kat sat quietly together and from Tanya's vantage point it looked like they were trying to hold hands but neither one was brave enough to do so. Even as they got up to get some food from the vending machine, hands brushing together they made no move.

It made Tanya smile and roll her eyes all the same. Tragedy did bring people together but when they were _that_ shy…she and Rocky had a bet on how long it would take for them to get together and at this rate it seemed like no one was going to win.

Letting out a low sigh, Tanya stretched her legs out and crossed them at the ankle. "I know," Adam said from her right side. He appeared to be staring at the ceiling, counting all of the dots there. "There's so many people here and they take this long to figure out how someone's doing?"

A smile graced Tanya's features. "I was just thinking that."

"Great minds think alike."

"Or we're both becoming very impatient."

"That too."

Now Tanya sighed. She shook out her long hair, pulled it back into a ponytail, dropped it, and then shook it out again. "Do you think he'll be okay?"

"If I had to guess they're probably stabilizing him, getting his medical history so that he's not allergic to any medication they use on him. Then it'll take some time to see the extension of his fall." Adam briefly closed his eyes then opened them again. "I knew there was something on his mind but I didn't think it'd hurt him. I should've told him to take a break."

Twisting in her seat Tanya placed her hand on his shoulder, gently rubbing her thumb over his shirt. "It's not your fault, Adam. It was an accident. The only way it could be your fault was if you pushed him over the ropes."

"He might need to have surgery, Tanya. His back might be broken. He might not be able to keep practicing. What if he can't be a ranger now?" Adam's voice started off strong and angry but then lowered to a harsh whisper once he got to the last part. That was the thing Tanya refused to think about, whether or not Rocky could continue to be a ranger.

If his fall was as bad as they thought…

She closed her eyes and shook her head. They couldn't think like that.

"What we need to focus on is him getting better. This could've been a lot worse than it is. It's a miracle he only broke his back. But he'll be glad to know you worried so much." Tanya smiled and Adam turned to look at her, smiling as well.

The two jumped and quickly turned away from each other when they heard Kat's voice say, "We spoke to the doctors and they say we can go in and see him now?" She looked embarrassed as Tanya and Adam turned their attention to her. Exchanging a glance with Tommy she bit her lower lip.

"Yeah, we can give him this stuff now," Tommy added, motioning to the balloons and flowers they had brought with them.

"That's great," Adam said, nearly leaping out of his seat. He smoothed down his shirt and cleared his throat before leading the way to Rocky's room.

Tanya carefully picked up the bouquet of flowers they had brought along and cradled them in her arms while Kat brought along the balloons. She brushed back the bent leaves and petals until they stood upright once more.

In the face of tragedy there was always a miracle.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 04**

* * *

Avalon winced and grabbed the side of her head. Pulling her fingers away she found blood smeared across the fingertips as well as a burning that erupted across her skull as she touched the raw nerve. It wasn't the same sort o pain that she had become used to, but after having been able to live a relatively normal life for a while, the shock of pain really surprised her. There was a gash wide enough that it needed stitches by her temple but nothing that would be too life threatening. The blood flow had already started to stem and her hair was dark enough that she could hide it.

The last thing she needed was to be fussed over if they had no idea where they were and what was going to attack them if it was.

Avalon turned her attention to her jaw, rubbing it as she hoped to quell the pain the dull pounding in her ears. She had descended too rapidly, whatever had gotten them wanted to make sure they were knocked out while doing so. _If this is what tumbling through a washing machine feels like I don't ever want to try it,_ she thought.

Turning around, Avalon took another look at the cell they were in. If they were in a boat or submarine it had to be big. There were only two doors in the room; one that looked like it was the way to get out and another that peered into another cell. There was no sound coming out of the other cell that they could hear. So they were the only ones in there.

 _That can either be a good thing or a bad thing,_ Avalon thought.

"What?" Kimberly asked, turning her way.

Avalon turned towards her, raising her eyebrows. She hadn't realized she was speaking out loud. "Oh! I was saying that it seems like we're the only ones in here. That can either be a good or a bad thing, yeah?"

"If you consider being kidnapped a good thing," Jason replied. He motioned over to Kimberly, "I mean, she might be used to it by now but…" he trailed off with a little smile as Kimberly glared at him, crossing her arms. "I'm just kidding, Kim." He placed his hands on his hips and looked around. "I think we're in big trouble here."

"I'd say," Kimberly agreed. She let out a low chuckle. "Wish we could morph."

Avalon made a humming sound. Kimberly certainly wouldn't be able to morph; she had given up her powers to Kat so that she could get treatment for her eating disorder. And Jason hadn't been able to morph since he had given up his gold ranger Zeo powers. Even his mighty morphin' powers wouldn't work, despite having his powers be copied for Rocky; those were destroyed when they had gotten their Zeo powers in the first place.

Glancing down at the communicator on her wrist, the one that had been silent since she left Angel Grove, Avalon started to bring up her arms. She twisted her left and right wrist so that her Zeonizer appeared and started to bring them together.

"Wait!" Jason grabbed onto her wrist, stopping her.

"What?" She asked incredulously, a little startled at his movement.

"We don't know if your Zeo powers still work, let alone how long it'll last. It's probably better if we wait to use them against whoever has us. Chances are they're going to come back to take us wherever they're taking us. Besides, there doesn't look like there's a way out."

"Hola!"

Avalon, Kimberly, and Jason all whirled around to the other cell within their confines and found two faces peering back at them. Startled, Kimberly grabbed onto Jason's arm and moved closer to him. He looked back and forth from the two girls before leading the way to the cell. He leaned in to the faces and his eyebrows came together as his heard jerked back.

"Bulk? Skull?" He asked.

Avalon frowned and leaned closer. Pressing her head against Kimberly's, who moved in to look as well, and gasped when she saw Bulk and Skull were indeed looking back at her. Except it wasn't the same Bulk and Skull she remembered seeing; they looked dazed and confused, and yet alert at the same time. Their eyes shifted back and forth a few times before settling on them once more.

"You're speaking to us?" Bulk asked his voice with a hint of a German accent.

"My name is Antonio Bandana," Skull said with a flick of his head. "Who is this Bulk and Skull?" His name voice dripped with contempt over the names that came to his lips.

"Something is strange with those two," Jason commented.

"Oh, you're just figuring that one out?" Kimberly shot back.

"They must've hit their heads or something. Amnesia, maybe even a little bit of mistaken identity," Avalon agreed. She took a step back away from the cell and ran her hands through her hair, trying not to wince. "Us being kidnapped I understand, we've been chased down for two, almost three years now. But why would anyone want to take these two?" Then her eyes widened. "Sharky. And the baby. She probably doesn't know where he is."

Her eyes widened even further as she realized that Bailey and her mother wouldn't know where she was either. They expected her to call in at least once a day and would become worried as soon as the agreed upon time would come and pass. If her instincts were as good as they always had been, Bailey would immediately jump to going back to the Power Chamber when needed, but their mother would take some time to figure out that it would be ranger related.

"Oh no. Emily," Jason agreed. Now he ran his hands over his face, backing away from the cell. "We were only supposed to be gone for a few hours, she's probably wondering where we went." He closed his eyes, resting his head against the wall behind him. Jason gently moved his head back and forth, hitting the metal with a loud thud each time.

Kimberly let out a low breath and pulled her hair off her neck. She reached up and pulled down the zipper of the back of her wet suit, wiggling out of it and pulled down the bottom of her purple tank top. She turned around and noticed that Avalon and Jason were staring at her. "What?" She asked. "If we're going to be fighting against these guys I kind of want to be able to move around to do it."

"That's not a bad idea, Kim," Jason agreed, prompting the others to do the same.

Avalon sat down in the thin layer of water on the floor and took off her water shoes before pulling off her wetsuit. As she set it aside her eyes moved towards the ceiling and she spotted a grate filtering in a little light. "Hey, check it out!" She pointed over towards the grate then pulled back on her water shoes before hurrying over to it. "I think there's someone up there."

Kimberly peered up into the grate and looked to see if she could see anyone standing above them or nearby. "How are we supposed to reach it?"

Avalon looked at Kimberly with a raised eyebrow. "You were a cheerleader, Pinkerbell; didn't you ever do any lifts?"

"No, we were supposed to just stand around and look pretty," Kimberly said sarcastically.

"Then it was a wasted sport on you."

Jason chuckled and moved over to see as well. Then he kneeled onto the floor and motioned over to Avalon. "Step up on my knee. Maybe I can lift you high enough to see who or what is up there?" Avalon nodded and did as she was told. She stepped up onto Jason's knee and as he wrapped his arms around her waist, he lifted her up as high as he could.

Avalon reached up and grabbed onto the grate with her fingertips before pulling herself up a little higher. She could hear the sound of machines beeping and whirring, what sounded like groaning pipes. Otherwise there was no one speaking. All of a sudden there were footsteps heading her way and before she could move her hands a foot covered in metal tred upon her fingertips causing her to squeal in pain and let go. Jason dropped her back to the ground and she shook out her hands.

"So? What'd you see?" Kimberly asked.

"I didn't see anyone around, but it looks like we're in a bloody submarine."

"A submarine?!" Jason and Kimberly repeated.

"Yeah, my father showed me and Bailey around one when we were still living with him. As a matter of fact I reckon his work in the Navy was primarily within subs." She sighed loudly in frustration, waiting for the pain in her fingertips to subside.

Then the weight of her words suddenly rested on her shoulders. They were in a submarine, those who knew where they were didn't know they were missing or when they were coming back, and they had no idea where they were going.

 _Its times like these I really hate surprises,_ she thought.

All of a sudden a screech reached her ears and she looked over to find Kimberly flailing as she backed away into a corner of the bilge. She lifted her foot and started to frantically kick her foot back and forth. "Ew! Ew! Oh gag!"

"What is it?" Avalon asked, hurrying over.

Jason reached Kimberly's side first and grabbed onto her foot. He and Avalon looked down at the leech that crawled over Kimberly's foot and he brought up his hand to flick it off. "There I think you'll be okay now."

"Guys? What are we going to do?" Kimberly asked.

Avalon shrugged, just as helpless as her friends.

* * *

Tommy pushed open the door to Rocky's hospital room and smiled when he saw his friend was sitting up in bed, blinking rapidly. But once he saw his friends coming in, Rocky turned his head and smiled at them, as far as his neck brace would allow him to. He didn't look as bad as Tommy expected, thinking there was going to be extensive damage, maybe even to his arms and legs from the way he had fallen to the ground. A sigh of relief escaped him when he saw the familiar smile that Rocky always had to show.

"Hey, we brought you a surprise," Tanya said, motioning to the flowers, card, and balloons the rangers were carrying. Adam made a show of handing a blue balloon over to him before releasing the others up to the ceiling. She moved up to the side of his bed and smiled down at him. "How're you feeling?"

"I'm okay, I guess," Rocky replied. He shifted back and forth in his bed as if trying to scratch an itch he couldn't reach. "I'll be even better once my Mom and my brothers and sisters get here. I know they're really worried."

"We called to let them know what was going on," Tommy reassured him. "Your Dad is coming back from work and your Mom didn't think she would be able to find people to watch the little ones before they could come here. But everything's okay."

Rocky smiled, briefly closing his eyes. "That's good." He rested his arms across his chest.

"The doctor said you're going to make a full recovery," Tanya said.

Almost absentmindedly he started to run his hand along his wrist. "Yeah, but not in enough time for the competition. I managed to dodge the bullet of not having to get back surgery. But it's going to take a while to heal. It looks like you're going to have to do it without me." He took a deep breath through his nose, releasing it in a low quiver.

"Looks like we don't have a choice," Adam agreed. He reached out and gently patted Rocky's leg. "I mean, without that prize money the shelter is going to close for good. If this were one of us we'd want you to continue to work hard to keep the shelter open."

Kat gently crossed her arms. She shook her head in disappointment before saying quietly, "Justin's taking it pretty hard, too. It's bad enough losing his mother, but now he has to face losing the shelter, too. He was really scared when you got hurt, Rocky."

"Yeah, you know how much he looks up to you." Tommy couldn't help but smile.

It was really nice to see Justin open up once the rangers started to work off their volunteer hours at the shelter. At the beginning he was really sullen and didn't have much to say. But the more time the rangers worked at the Angel Grove Youth Shelter the more Rocky seemed to bond with Justin and soon he was as lively as the rest of the kids there. He especially liked getting martial arts practice. Justin reminded him a bit of Fred, actually, the hard family life aside.

If Fred and his father weren't traveling he was sure the two boys would've gotten along great.

"I know. I feel terrible letting him down like this."

"You're not letting him down, Rocky. No one knew this was going to happen."

Rocky fell silent once more.

He reached up and played with the neck brace, pulling it this way and that before lowering his arms once more. His gaze shifted over to Adam and the two best friends looked at each other for a long moment. Finally, he lifted his hands and turned his wrists around. Tommy's gaze lowered from Rocky's face to his wrists and his mouth dropped open. Lines dotted up and down his arms, some old, some newer and Tommy immediately understood the implications.

"They're going to keep me on a seventy-two hour hold," Rocky explained to the dull silence in the room. "To make sure I'm not a danger to myself or anyone else."

"Oh, Rocky." Kat reached out and clasped onto his hands. "Why didn't you tell us?"

"I only told Adam because he found out. Because I couldn't keep it a secret anymore. It's not...it's not something that I like to do. I don't do it a lot, only when things become too hard to handle." He cleared his throat. "My Dad…he's not the best Dad in the world and when he came back…it was really hard to—"

"Rocky, you don't need to explain anything to us," Tanya interrupted. "We're your friends; we just want you to be as healthy as possible. If there's anything you want to talk about you know we're always here to help you." She ran a hand through her hair and smiled warmly at him.

Kat smiled as well. "We're your friends, Rocky. That's the point of the friendship."

"And you're tough, man, we know you're going to pull through," Tommy agreed. He looked up as an afterthought. "We should probably tell Alpha and Zordon." He jumped as the sound of their communicators going off filled the room.

"Speak of the devil," Rocky joked.

"Do you think they can read our minds? Or do they watch us as much as Rita did?" Adam asked.

Tommy chuckled and brought his communicator up to his mouth. "This is Tommy."

_"Rangers, report to the Power Chamber! A powerful wizard has arrived on Earth and may be in danger!"_

"We're on our way, Tommy out."

Tommy slowly lowered his communicator and looked over at Rocky. His heart was already hammering against his ribcage, adrenaline running. This was the first time in months that their communicators had gone off. It was time to head back into action…but without a full team would they be able to do it?

Rocky just smiled. "Hey, you don't need a gimp like me hobbling after you guys? Just imagine what it would be like if I tried to morph now." Tommy, Kat, Adam, and Tanya all laughed at his joke. "You heard Zordon. What are you waiting for? Go for it."

"Okay, we'll let you know what's up," Adam said to him. "Be careful, okay?"

"Well, the only thing I have to be careful of is getting fat off of all of this hospital food. But even I don't think that's possible. The food here stinks." Rocky smiled once more, and then closed his eyes as his friends teleported from the hospital room.

Tommy immediately turned back to Zordon as they materialized in the center of the Power Chamber. Zordon looked at the four in turn, his face in a hardened expression.

"Welcome back, rangers. We have much to discuss," his voice boomed around the room.

"Where's Rocky?" Alpha said, looking at the four.

"Rocky got hurt when he was sparring with us earlier today. He's going to be in the hospital for a few days. He wished he could help but knows it's something too important for us to wait," Adam explained.

"So what's going on, Zordon?" Tanya said.

"We believe Lerigot from Liara has come to Earth and he is in grave danger. He has taken great pains to hide his exact location. Someone must be after him," Zordon explained.

Tommy's eyebrows furrowed together. Lerigot. That wasn't a name he or the rest of the rangers had ever heard Zordon or Alpha say before. But with the tone of concern in Zordon's voice it was evident that Lerigot was a good friend to the two. There were plenty of planets and universes out there they hadn't explored and Zordon and Alpha were from another part of the galaxy they hadn't been to. If the intergalactic being had come to Earth something really must've been wrong.

"Lerigot is a Liarian who holds the special key that opens intergalactic portals throughout the universe. He is the descendant of ancient wizards that protect the planet."

"If he's in danger, we need to get him to the Power Chamber quickly," Alpha agreed. His hands waved nervously. "Zordon and I have been tracking his movements and it doesn't look like things are going well for him."

"Tommy, you and Kat go see if you can find him," Adam suggested. "Tanya and I will stay here in case you need some back up later."

"That's a good idea, Adam," Tommy agreed. "This could be trouble. Keep an eye out for us."

"We've managed to pinpoint him somewhere in Central Africa," Alpha continued.

"You must equip yourselves with your power boxes," Zordon said. "Take them and teleport immediately. He cannot survive under the sun's rays."

Tommy and Kat nodded before walking over to a panel on the wall of the Power Chamber. It slid open to reveal six brightly colored boxes inside their own cases along the wall. Tommy glanced over at the orange one as he and Kat picked out the ones of their respective colors. If things were going to get so bad they needed to let Avalon know somehow. Just in case she needed to come back from Australia to help them out. They weren't a team if all of them weren't together and they could only defeat their villains the same way.

Alpha started to frantically pace back and forth, waving his hands up and down and back and forth. He was probably seconds away from short circuiting. "Ay yi yi. The short range locators in your power boxes shoulder take you directly to Lerigot's location. They are equipped with just about everything you might need in case of an emergency."

"Make sure you let Rocky know what's happening," Kat called to Tanya, who nodded.

"What about Avalon?" Adam added. He pressed his hands to his hips. "We should let her and Bailey know what's going on, too."

"We'll get into contact with Avalon. Hurry rangers, Lerigot may not have much time left," Zordon instructed.

"Send my love to Africa," Tanya called with a wistful smile.

Tommy nodded back to her then looked over at Kat. "You ready?"

"Let's go!"

The two teleported out of the Power Chamber in bright flashes of light.


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 05**

_Strength in Numbers  
_

* * *

Kat looked around as soon as she and Tommy landed in the dense African jungle. The balmy heat swelled around them, causing beads of sweat to immediately pop up at her hairline. With a light sigh, she dragged her arm across her forehead.

"This reminds me of some parts of Australia," she commented, light blue eyes shifting back and forth over the terrain.

Tommy nodded in agreement. He hadn't been anywhere in Australia other than the city of Sydney when the class took a trip there as part of a foreign exchange. He smiled as he remembered it. Avalon had been upset about the trip knowing she wouldn't be able to attend with her low grades when she wanted nothing more than to go home. Then Billy had helped her out by speaking to Mr. Kaplan and Miss. Applebee as well as helping her study enough to bring her grades up to be able to attend. Of course while they were there Rita and Zedd had to attack as well, but all in all it had been a fun trip.

Too bad this trip to Africa couldn't be under the same reasons.

A light beeping sound filled the air and Tommy reached behind him to press a button on his power box. A rectangular device slid into his hands and he glanced down at the tracking device. It continued to ping, following a small yellow dot that rested in the corner of the screen.

Tommy twisted his body around and pointed in the direction the scanning device held it, "We need to go that way."

"Right. Let's go find Lerigot," Kat agreed.

And off the two rangers went, following the direction of the scanner wherever it led them. The climbed up steep rock faces, slid down tilted hills, and crossed treacherous paths as they went. The only sound between them was their heavy breathing and the sounds of their feet cracking over dry twigs and scattered stones. Still the two continued moving as quickly as they could; turning left and right when the scanner told them to.

Kat drew her arm across her forehead once more. This time along with sweat dirt and leaves came along with it. Her upper lip curled and she flicked her wrist, dropping some of it to the ground. Then she lifted her gaze to watch Tommy's retreating back and suddenly despised how his long hair continued to look flawless no matter what terrain he managed to go through. Her gaze lowered a little bit lower, resting on his backside, and Kat nearly tripped over a low branch as she did so. She stumbled to catch her balance and fell to her knees with a grunt.

"Ow," she whispered.

"Kat!" Tommy immediately turned back her way. He reached out his hand once he came to a stop by her side. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine." Kat ignored his hand and stood up. She brushed off her clothes and examined her reddening knees. "I just tripped. I guess I wasn't watching where I was going." _Because you were too busy watching some else._ She then noticed Tommy continually looking at her. "It's nothing I haven't done before. You're acting like you've never tripped."

A smile came to Tommy's lips. "Not for a while," he admitted. "Fast reflexes and good balance from my martial arts training."

"Well, then you're as perfect as you try to make everyone believe," Kat teased. She stepped around him and the two started walking once more.

" _I'm_ the perfect one?" Tommy laughed incredulously. "I'm not the one that seems so good at everything."

"I'm not good at _everything_."

"Right. You're terrible at sewing and making purses. Boo hoo."

Kat reached out and shoved Tommy on the shoulder, causing him to stumble over. He quickly regained his balance without falling and held out his arms as if to say 'ta-da'. Kat giggled and rolled her eyes. Then the two feel silent, bringing their attention to Lerigot once more.

Soaked with sweat and covered in grime Tommy and Kat continued to follow Lerigot's signal throughout the rough terrain for the next hour.

Once they came over another hill Kat took a deep breath, resting her hands on her hips. She took in a few breaths then glanced down at her shoe. The laces lay flopped over. "Hey, hold on a second," she called to Tommy. "I'm all undone here." She sat down on a nearby rock and leaned over to re-tie her shoe. Then she leaned back and let out a long breath. "The heat's really intense here. I don't know how Tanya did it."

"I'm sure she says the same about us when winter comes to Angel Grove," Tommy replied. He poked another spot on his power box and a vial of water popped out. He handed it to Kat then turned his attention back to the scanner. "His signal is getting stronger, we must be really close."

Kat nodded and took a long swig of water. She handed it back to Tommy and sighed in relief. A light wind blew and that combined with her quenched thirst re-energized her. Now if only it weren't for the mosquitoes. She waved her hand to shoo away the buzzing insects then stopped when she noticed Tommy's tense gaze on her, slowly lowering the water vial from his lips.

"Tommy…?" she whispered.

Tommy brought his other hand up and pressed his fingers to his lips, still staring at her. "Don't move," he whispered. He took a few slow, very slow steps towards her. "Be quiet."

"Wha…?" And then she heard the low hissing next to her ear. Kat swallowed hard and froze in place. A warm heat slid over her arm and she heard the hissing once more. Very slowly, she turned her head and her blue eyes rested on a snake that slowly slid up her shoulder. "Tommy," she repeated, voice coming out in a quiver.

Tommy continued to creep towards her. His eyes stayed stuck to the snake that continued to slither its way down her shoulder. "Don't move." He licked his lips. "On the count of three, dive to your right okay?" Kat nodded imperceptibly in case the serpent decided it liked the taste of her flesh too much. "One…"

Kat steeled her muscles.

"Two…"

She slowly shifted her feet, bringing her right one backwards and the left one slightly ahead of it in a pose to start running.

"Three!"

Kat leapt to the right just as Tommy raced forward and grabbed the snake by the back of the neck. It moved in the same Kat moved as if trying to strike her. With the momentum of her dive, Kat stumbled as she moved to get to her feet and the ground gave way behind her, sending her rolling down a hill. The Earth continued to rotate with a view of the sky and the ground as she went before she came to a sudden stop, her hands snagging a branch that protruded out of a Cliffside.

She glanced down at the rushing water of the river below then up at the hill she had just fallen from. "Tommy!" She called.

But Tommy was too busy trying to wrestle away the snake that had wrapped its body around his legs and continued to move its body up towards his chest. The snake was much thicker, stronger than he had anticipated. It was putting up an even better fight then he thought.

"Kat!" He called back. He struggled to make it towards the cliff edge. "Kat, you have to morph."

Kat closed her eyes as she held tightly onto the branch. She swung her legs forward, trying to get enough momentum to swing herself up and around the branch and to hold on. The second she moved backwards, ready to swing again, a loud crack made her freeze. The branch started to sag and Kat held on tighter. "Okay Kat, you have to morph like he said. It's the only thing that's going to help you."

She summoned her Zeonizer just as the branch gave way beneath her. The strap of her Zeonizer snagged on the branch and tore off her wrist as Kat started to plummet towards the water. Frantically, she reached up to grab it as it fell towards her. It nestled into her palm and Kat was given a second of reprieve before bringing the pieces of her Zeonizer together.

"Zeo Ranger I, Pink!" She called.

As she fell the morphine sequence started, enough to cover her head with her helmet and her upper body with the spandex composition of the suit. Then she hit the water, hard. The helmet protected her head from bouncing against the water and her suit made it so that her body was protected as best as it could be. But the water short circuited the Zeonizer that immediately made her power down. Kat was pulled down into the swirly, murky water before her head breached the surface, allowing her to gasp for air.

"Tommy!" She called again, the current of the water immediately sweeping her downstream.

"Kat!"

Tommy continued to wrestle with the snake as it darted its head back and forth, trying to sink its fangs into the red ranger's face. Finally, he managed a strong punch that shot its head backwards, making it loosen his grip along his body. Tommy scrambled to his feet and raced down the hill after Kat, diving into the water after her. He struggled through the water, swimming with the current to make it to Kat who continued to bob in the water.

Finally, he reached her and grabbed onto her power box. "Kat, are you okay?" He asked.

Kat managed to nod, keeping her mouth closed among the waves of water that splashed up into her face. She was as okay as could be after being thrown around like a rag doll in a washing machine. Her leg throbbed with immense pain and the rest of her body was battered but she was okay. "I think I hurt my leg," She managed to gasp.

"You're going to be okay, Kat."

Tommy grabbed onto her power box and pressed button on it, causing a life preserver to float beside them. He grasped it and placed it over Kat's head, gently holding onto her arms. Just as he let out a sigh of relief something powerful clamped onto his power box, pulling him backwards.

Kicking his legs as hard as he could, Tommy managed to shake out of the way of the power box and found himself face to face with a large crocodile. The crocodile started to open its mouth once more and Tommy leapt atop it, wrapping his arms around its jaws, keeping it shut. In retaliation, the crocodile started to shake its head back and forth, bringing Tommy along for the ride. The water started to lower, allowing Kat to dog paddle her way towards the shore and she pulled herself out.

A scream escaped her throat as her leg buckled and she fell towards the ground. Pain seared up her leg as quickly and hot as a lightning bolt. She turned around just in time to watch Tommy grab a large branch that floated by in the water, the one she had been holding onto before, and shoved it into the crocodile's mouth before making it to shore beside Kat.

"Look out," Kat warned. She retrieved a blow torch from her power box and pressed the trigger. A flame shot out from the front, scorching the crocodile and sending it back into the water. Gasping for air, she replaced the blow torch into her power box and glanced at Tommy. "You're welcome," she said.

Tommy gave her a look and nodded his thanks in reply. Kat slowly kneeled down to the ground, grasping her leg as blood seeped through her fingers.

"That doesn't look good Kat," he said, "We better teleport back."

"No, we have to find Lerigot. We're too close to him already. There's a first aid kit in the power box. We can use that. Maybe make a splint." Tommy nodded and did as he was told. Taking out a first aid kit he quickly made a splint and put it around Kat's leg. She slowly stood up to test her weight and flung her arm around Tommy's shoulders to keep herself upright as he grabbed her waist. "Are you good to walk?"

She nodded.

A loud beeping filled the air.

"Lerigot's close, let's go."

"Yeah."

The two shuffled through the underbrush.

It was slow going.

They finally made it to a clearing, turning this way and that as they tried to figure out where to go. Just then a small creature walked through the woods, of which resembled a small lion walking on two feet, draped in a light blue and light purple cloth. It looked at Tommy and Kat for a moment then tilted its head to the side.

"Alpha?" It questioned.

"He knows how Alpha is. This must be Lerigot," Kat whispered.

"You're right, we found him." Tommy tightened his grasp around Kat's waist and the two carefully moved toward Lerigot. "You said Alpha? We're here to take you to him," Tommy said. The two continued to move towards Lerigot, who looked back at them. They didn't move so he must not have been afraid. "We're friends of his."

"Alpha," Lerigot repeated.

Kat reached out her hand. Lerigot slowly walked towards her then grasped onto her outstretched hand. Kat smiled down at him as he curled his fingers over hers. "Hello, Lerigot," she said quietly. She gasped as Lerigot gently held out his other hand and bright lights sparkled form his fingertips, surrounding Kat's leg. The pain subsided and she found herself able to stand up straight. "He healed my leg!" She looked over at Tommy and he appeared just as mystified as she did. "Thank you, Lerigot."

"Let's get him out of here," Tommy said. He brought his communicator up. "Alpha, we've got Lerigot. Standing by for teleportation."

_"You've got it, Tommy. And just in time, too. Adam and Tanya need your help."_

The Red and Pink Zeo rangers nodded to each other and teleported to the Power Chamber.

* * *

Tanya frowned as the monitor she watched suddenly changed view to another blip that screamed towards the Earth's atmosphere. "Adam," She called. "Look at this. An object just entered Earth's atmosphere. There's some sort of shield blocking its identity."

Adam leaned over her shoulder and looked at the monitor before moving to another one. "Keep an eye on it. I don't have a good feeling about it. Tommy and Kat better make it back soon."

Tanya nodded. She looked at the map and pressed a few buttons on her keyboard. Then she pressed another one and looked up as the viewing globe showed what appeared to be a large fish moving through the ocean. "I locked onto something!"

Adam tilted his head to the side, crossing his arms. He slowly walked towards the viewing globe. "It looks like some sort of a submarine," he agreed.

"Ay yi yi yi yi! It's Divatox!" Alpha cried.

"Who's Divatox?"

"Divatox is an intergalactic pirate queen from the distant planet Gratha. She leads a group of cutthroat aliens, monsters, and mutants along with her footmen the Pirranatrons," Zordon explained. "She must be the one that has chased Lerigot all the way to Earth. I can only imagine what she wants with his power."

"First we go from Space Witches to Space Pirates," Adam commented. He kept his eyes on the viewing globe, shaking his head as he studied the fish shaped submarine. "We better so see what they're up to; maybe we can stop them before they get any closer to Lerigot."

"That's a good idea, Adam," Tanya agreed. "Prepare the Aqua Power Suits."

"I'm on it, Tanya," Alpha said.

Adam stepped back from the viewing globe and followed Tanya to the far side of the Power Chamber where six rainbow colored tubes sat next to the sits of their old Mighty Morphin' powers. His green chamber opened at the same time as Tanya's. Glancing over at Tanya, he gave her a confident nod, which she returned before the two stepped inside.

Once inside the tube a spandex suit came up from the floor, encompassing their bodies. Adam waited until the mouthpiece of the suit was in place before reaching behind him to make sure the jet pack was properly in place.

"Rangers, proceed with caution until we're sure what intent Divatox brings," Zordon warned them.

"You got it Zordon," Adam said.

He and Tanya were teleported out of the Power Chamber and into the ocean. Adam gently kicked his legs, propelling himself forward through the ocean, looking around through the marine wildlife. He held up miniature radar that started to flash a signal and pressed a button on the side of his helmet. "Radar shows the sub up ahead."

"I'm right behind you," Tanya replied. They rounded a rock formation in enough time to find a door to the sub opening, releasing metal soldiers that rapidly swam their way. "Those must be the Pirranatrons that Zordon was telling us about."

"Jet power!" Adam called, activating his jetpack.

Tanya did the same and the two raced towards the Pirranatrons at high speeds. They immediately became entangled in an underwater battle with the Pirranatrons. Adam managed to grab one by the arms and force them behind its back, but another one came up behind him and grabbed onto his jet pack, frantically wiggling back and forth so that Adam lost his grip. Tanya came to his rescue and sent a strong punch towards the Pirranatron. It flew backwards but the yellow Zeo ranger grasped her wrist as she pulled her hand back.

"These guys are made of metal, our attacks aren't going to do much against them," Tanya said.

"They're obviously trying to guard us against something. We need to know what it is," Adam reminded her. "Or else Divatox is trying to distract us. It wouldn't be the first time one of these things used that tactic."

"You've got a point," Tanya said. She reached over and grabbed onto Adam's hand, pulling him hard. An explosion of bubbles erupted in front of his face and he leaned out of the way as a metal spear flew by his head. "These guys aren't going to give up without a fight."

"Or without turning us into shish kabobs," Adam added. He turned to look at her through their helmets. "Thanks, Tanya."

"You're welcome. Let's see where these guys are coming from. Jets to full power!"

Tanya and Adam surged by the Pirranatrons and raced towards the open hatch of the submarine. It started to close and Adam had to twist his body around, back peddling before he ran straight into the metal on the side of the sub.

"Looks like Divatox knows we're here," he said.

"Looks like it. We better get back to Zordon and let him know what we've found out."

"You got it."

On board her ship, Divatox's upper lip curled as she peered through her periscope. "Rygog! Who are these interfering interlopers?" She demanded, watching as the Yellow and Green Zeo rangers turned around and raced back through the water.

A monster whose makeup resembled that of a Christmas Ornament walked over and peered into the periscope as well. "It looks like two of those Power Rangers that Zordon controls."

"Oh, right. Zordon." Divatox flicked her fingers through the air. "I remember Rita went on and on about something about a Zordon. I don't know. I stopped paying attention once her shrieking voice got annoying." She leaned towards Elgar, who stood by her side. "Believe me that happens very quickly." She mimed yawning. "Well, it looks like Zordon doesn't know when to stop sticking his nose into other people's business. This should teach him a lesson."

She walked over to a control panel a Pirranatron was manning and pressed her fingertip into a bright green button. She stomped back to the periscope and looked through it, shoving Rygog out of the way just in time to watch an electric blast shoot through the water and connect with the two rangers, causing them to go flying into the rock formation.

Seconds later they teleported out of the water in flashes of green and yellow light.

"That'll show em'."

* * *

Kimberly tilted her head back and rested it against the metal behind her. She pressed her heels into the floor as it tilted below her, making water splash towards the opposite end of the bilge. Then it straightened out and she released the pressure she placed on the floor. A chill moved through her body. As much as the padding under the wetsuits kept them warm when under water it didn't help consistently sitting in it.

She shivered and looked around the bilge. Jason sat on one side of the room, sitting Indian style eyes closed. Almost as if he was meditating. And Avalon sat on the other side, knees drawn up to her chest and quietly picking at her communicator. Then she rested her arms atop of her knees and let out a long sigh.

Kimberly twisted her mouth to the side. What were they supposed to do now? There didn't seem to be any ways in or out of the bilge, they were being held captive by _someone_ or _something_ and were going _somewhere._ And to think this was all starting off with a surprise trip they were taking to Angel Grove. It had been part of a random phone call that Kimberly had made to Jason to see how things in Vietnam were going to with Trini. (Though what he didn't know was she had called him right after Trini had told him a way he had managed to embarrass himself with the locals and she wanted to hear his side of the story). Then he mentioned he was going to be going back to Angel Grove to see his family, his girlfriend, and to see the others in enough time to see the Martial Arts tournament.

And Kimberly immediately hi-jacked his trip to surprise the others with him, though she was only going to get there the day after he arrived. Still she was excited to see her mom and all of her friends again. Not to mention she wanted to see how Angel Grove, a city she absolutely loved, managed to rebuild after the countless attacks it had from Rita and Zedd and the Machine Empire.

Mostly she wanted to see Tommy and see how he was doing. They were still close friends since their breakup but it was different talking on the phone and through email instead of being able to see each other face to face. And she still loved him; those feelings weren't going to go away anytime soon or ever. And while they weren't together she wanted to know everything was going okay.

What a surprise it was to see Avalon was there, too. She hadn't seen either of her best girlfriends in a long time and it was a great mini-reunion. Now the three of them were stuck together in a submarine unsure of where they were going and what they were needed for. Jason was a little bit right, if Kimberly hadn't become so used to being kidnapped so much as a ranger she probably would've lost her wits by now.

 _"…now that we've got those brats out of the way we need to figure out how to get Lerigot and head to Muiranthias, Divatox._ "

Kimberly turned her head and noticed her ear was next to an open pipe. She shifted her weight and pressed her palms against the metal wall of the bilge and moved her ear closer to hear. The person or thing that had just spoken had a gravelly voice. Almost comic-like.

 _"We've already gotten that figured out you dolt!"_ A strong, feminine voice shouted, echoing through the pipe. That must've been Divatox. _"We've got his wife and baby in our grasp. We'll use them to get him into our clutches and then go to Muiranthias. Maligore will take my as his wife once he sees the offerings I have for him."_

Then the voices faded away.

Kimberly's breath caught in her throat and she turned back towards Avalon and Jason, who didn't seem to hear the plans from their corners of the bilge. The groaning of the metal and steel around them must've made it difficult. "Guys," she breathed, immediately grabbing their attention.

"What's up, Kim?" Jason asked.

Kimberly swallowed hard and shook her head. "It's not looking good. We're headed someplace called Muiranthias. And…"

"What is it, Kim? You look spooked," Avalon remarked. Her lips curled back into a smirk. "Did you chip a nail or something?"

Kimberly ignored her jab, knowing it she was doing her best to try and calm her down. "Apparently they're keeping us as some sort of a sacrifice for something called Maligore." She looked at Avalon, who looked back at her and the two immediately turned their attention to Jason, waiting for him to tell them what to do.

He wasn't' a ranger anymore but he knew how to stay level-headed under pressure.

Jason ran his hands over his face and took a few steps back. Then he turned his back to the girls, placing his hands on his hips. He paced back and forth a few times, feet sloshing water around the room. Kimberly wiggled her toes, trying to get feeling back into them as she waited for his instruction. Finally, as he came back towards her his foot hit something in the water that scraped against the floor. He immediately plunged his hands into the water and picked up pieces of shrapnel. Kimberly could practically see a light bulb going off over his head.

"We need to make some weapons," he explained. "Use the pieces of shrapnel around the bilge to our advantage just in case one of the things up there comes down here. We can overpower them then make out way out of here and figure out what these guys really want with us on Muiranthias."

He walked around the water, his eyes on the floor and picked up a pipe, handing it over to Kimberly. "Take this."

"What about me, Rudolph?" Avalon asked. She crossed her arms. "You don't think you can show attention to one girl and not another, do you?"

Kimberly watched as Jason managed an amused smile before mimicking her stance, crossing his arms as well. "As far as we know, you can still use your Zeo Powers. So we'll need you as a last line of defense for when these guys come down here. And they'll have to periodically check. If we're supposed to be sacrifices they'll want us kept alive. We have to eat sometime."

Avalon's lips pursed and she pressed her palms together, using her index fingers to point at "Okay, so that's what happens. These guys come in here and we attack them with our weapons. Don't you think they'd have some sort of plan in case that's what we want to do? Not to mention we'd want a plan in case that goes wrong, yeah?"

"Wrong how?" Kimberly asked.

"They might decide to abandon ship and leave us in here," Avalon explained. Her eyes shifted around the bilge before narrowing. "If I had to guess, if we were trapped down here, there's probably enough air to last at least a couple of hours if there's an air source that can consistently replenish the oxygen in here."

Kimberly laughed lightly. "Sounds like you managed to learn something from Billy," She commented.

The change in expression on Jason's face was almost imperceptible but Kimberly noticed it. It was a mixture of a grimace and a warning expression before it cleared away. Kimberly glanced at Avalon and noticed that her face went blank before a hardened expression came to it. It was then Kimberly realized she hadn't seen that look since she first met the Orange Zeo Ranger, shortly after she had transferred to Angel Grove High and was still part of the Vipers.

"Yeah, well, he was really good at what he did," she finally managed to say. She twisted her mouth to the side then motioned to Jason. "Let me know if there's anything else you need me to do, Jay."

"No problem, Avie," he said quietly.

Kimberly wanted to apologize, to let Avalon know she hadn't meant to bring up what was obviously a very hard topic. Instead, Kimberly searched through the water on the floor to find more pieces that would come together as a weapon.

At the moment they needed to focus on breaking out when they had the chance.


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 06**

* * *

"Is he going to be alright?" Tanya asked, leaning over Lerigot. She reached up her hand and rubbed her neck and shoulders. Her muscles continued to throb with pain from Divatox's attack. "He doesn't look so good.

Lerigot laid on a medical table with a mask over his face. Tubes ran to his body, filling him with nutrient enriched liquids while Alpha ran a scan over his body. Tommy, Kat, Tanya, and Adam stood around him, watching quietly.

"The suns' rays have really affected him," Alpha explained. "He's very dehydrated. But otherwise he'll be okay."

"Guess he had a pretty close call," Tanya remarked.

"So did we," Adam reminded her. He turned from Lerigot, running his hands through his hair. "Those Pirranatrons that Divatox has are something else. They made quick work of me and Tanya. They're much stronger than the cogs from the Machine Empire."

"Did you get a chance to see Divatox at all?" Tommy asked.

Adam shook his head. "Nothing but the Pirranatrons. I don't even know what they were trying to do. Tanya and I only went out to investigate. Not that it matters much; we can't know what they want until we know what they're up to." That was how things always went, he realized. They were always one step behind until their enemy finally made their move. They clearly wanted Lerigot for something or else they wouldn't have traveled to Earth, but what?

He turned back towards Lerigot as the machines around them started to beep rapidly. Adam's eyes widened in surprise and fear as Lerigot started to violently twitch, almost seizing. His eyes started to roll around and distressed sounds poured from his mouth as the seconds passed. Tommy reached out to grab onto Lerigot but Alpha grasped his elbow before he could do so.

"Don't touch him!" Zordon's voice boomed. "He's receiving a telepathic message."

"Telepathic message?" Adam repeated. He and Kat exchanged a glance. They'd seen a lot of things throughout their tenure of being a power ranger, but had never seen anything that could communicate telepathically.

Lerigot continued to shake back and forth in distress. Adam listened hard, trying to figure out the words. "Yara!" Lerigot cried over and over again. "Yara!"

"Alpha, attach the cranial transmission scanner and connect it to the viewing globe. Perhaps if we can find out what he is receiving we can help me," Zordon commanded. A soon as Zordon gave his command Alpha did as he was told, moving as quickly as his metallic arms and legs could move him. Finally, once everything was set up, he and the rangers turned to the viewing globe.

The image was distorted and fuzzy at first, shifting back and forth before it came into focus. Then the snow that covered the screen cleared and the rangers got their first glimpse of Divatox. She sat poised on what appeared to be a throne, daintily smearing lipstick onto her lips as she gazed into a mirror. Adam shook his head as he watched her. If there was someone who felt confident in what they were doing it was her. And that was _not_ a good thing.

"No…Divatox…" Zordon said.

"Ay yi yi," Alpha said quietly.

"Zordon, I know you can hear me, so listen well," Divatox drawled, movements purposefully slow. "Lerigot must surrender." The view on Divatox suddenly shifted to reveal two creatures sitting by her side, one with a metal helmet being held over her head by a Pirranatron. The two creatures resembled Lerigot though one was a baby. "Say 'hello' to Lerigot's family; wife Yara, and little baby Bethel."

Lerigot started to shake even faster and Adam was sure it wasn't just from the pain of seeing his family taken away, but also from the anger he felt. This time he started to scream as well, making Adam slap his hands over his ears. He couldn't take it. First there was Rocky's scream of pain as he landed on the mat, severely injuring his back, then Lerigot. And each time he could do nothing to stop it. What was the point of being a power ranger if you couldn't stop someone else's pain?

"Stop it! It's killing him!" Kat cried.

"Bring him to me and I'll give you a little trade. I'll relinquish the humans I have in my possession," Divatox continued. She brought a finger to her chin, tilting her head to the side. "And what was it that you call them again? Oh yes, power rangers! I'm sure you'll remember them!"

The image on the viewing globe suddenly shifted to the bilge of her ship to reveal Kimberly, Jason, and Avalon sitting on the floor amongst the water. "Kimberly," Tommy whispered. "And Jason."

"They've got Av, too," Adam stated.

"Bring me Lerigot and you'll get them back," Divatox said and cut the transmission before anyone could say anything else. Once the transmission ended Lerigot stopped shaking, eyes closing calmly. Silence stretched around the Power Chamber. It was as if Lerigot hadn't seen anything and was just sleeping peacefully. Almost in a dreamlike state.

"Zordon, what are we going to do?" Tanya asked. "We can't give Lerigot to them if they're just going to hurt them. They've even got his family." She reached out a hand and gently stroked Lerigot's arm. "It really hurts to be ripped away from everything you've ever known."

Adam lowered his gaze for a moment. Tanya had adjusted to life in the US very well, despite the face she was still a bit of a speed demon and a scary driver when she actually got the chance to drive, but there were times where he forgot she was an exchange student from Africa. It certainly had been hard the first couple of months for her to get used to everything. She was always smiling so much and had a positive attitude about things. There must've still been a lot of things that she was dealing with that she probably wasn't mentioning to everyone else.

He lifted his gaze once more and grasped Tanya's shoulder. "Don't worry Tanya; we're going to figure things out. We're not going to give them Lerigot."

"But wouldn't that be the best thing to do?" Kat asked tentatively. She glanced over at Tommy, who continued to stay silent since the revelation of his friends being kidnapped. "We can't let her keep our friends."

"But we can't give them Lerigot either," Adam reminded her. "Who knows what they'll do to him."

Kat bit her lower lip then turned towards their mentor. "What does she want form Lerigot?"

Zordon looked down at the rangers with a forlorn expression. "Lerigot is in possession of a magical key which will open the gateway to the island of Muiranthias. It is located on the other side of the Nemesis Triangle?"

"The Nemesis Triangle?" Adam repeated. His nose wrinkled as he placed his hands on his hips. Then he shook his head. "They can't ever come up with nice pleasant names for anything can they?" His eyebrows rose for a minute. "But at least we know what we're getting into." He and his friends laughed lightly. _Someone has to be the life of the party when Rocky's not around,_ he thought.

"Once upon the island Divatox plans to join force with Maligore and become his bride of evil," Zordon continued.

"Then we can't give him up for that. Who knows what would happen?" Tanya insisted.

Kat started to say something then stopped when she heard a light beeping sound. The group turned to find Lerigot was now awake, speaking to Alpha in strange clicks and beeping sounds. After a few minutes Alpha reached out and placed his hands on Lerigot's shoulders, nodding. Then he turned towards the rangers, shaking his head.

"It's no use, Rangers, Lerigot insists on giving himself up," Alpha explained.

"There has to be something else we can do," Tanya insisted.

"It's his family, we'd do the same for each other," Adam reminded her.

Tommy took a deep breath and finally spoke to his friend once more. "Okay, listen, we'll get Kim and Jason and Av out of there and then we'll go back after Lerigot. And after Divatox." He nodded at his friends and they nodded back. Their decision was made, they had to go.

For the next hour the rangers came up with a plan to make sure they would get their friends back from Divatox as well as to follow up and help Lerigot. As soon as the time came to meet up with Divatox the rangers teleported to the ocean side where Divatox's fish shaped submarine was waiting. And that's where everything went wrong. As soon as they arrived Lerigot waddled onto the beach where Elgar waited in a dingy with a few Pirranatrons to make sure he didn't escape. Then there was another dingy that held what the rangers thought were bodies of their friends dumped in the water. Tommy and Adam immediately charged out into the ocean to rescue their friends.

However the bodies that had been dumped into the water were dummies and the rangers went back to the Power Chamber with low spirits. Adam watched as Tommy paced back and forth alternating his hands on his hips to his hair. Every few minutes he would clench his hands into fists as well. His footsteps clomped loudly along the ground and Adam couldn't help but shake his head. It had to have especially been hard for Tommy to have failed like this; it was his ex-girlfriend, his best friend, and his adoptive sister who were all being held by Divatox.

Some of the closest people to him.

If that had happened to Rocky or Aisha…Adam didn't know how to react. The three were like family and if something ever happened to them he would move Heaven and Earth to be sure they were safe. "If Divatox gets Lerigot to Muiranthias then there's nothing that will stop them," Zordon said to the ranger. "Not even your zords will be powerful enough to stop them."

"Then what can we do, Zordon?" Kat asked. She ran a hand through her hair and continued to watch Tommy. "If our zords can't handle their power…"

"Fortunately we have planned for such an occasion," Zordon explained. Tommy, Kat, Tanya, and Adam all exchanged glances and Zordon lifted his chin. "Rangers, with ever evil faction you defeat there's always going to be someone else coming along afterward who will have the power to do more than the evil presence before. We've seen that with Rita, Zedd, and the Machine Empire."

"And we've managed to beat all of them, Zordon. We can't give up hope," Tommy reminded him.

"In no way am I giving up hope, Tommy. But there is something that should be brought to your attention." The rangers turned as the sound of teleportation reached their ears and Bailey Oliver-Mitchell appeared in the Power Chamber. She appeared disoriented for a moment then took in all of her friends.

"What happened?" She demanded, taking a look at each of their faces.

And so the rangers explained everything that had gone on over the last couple of hours. The former purple ranger listened quietly, nodding every now and then. A flash of anger shot through her eyes when she was told what happened to Avalon, Kimberly, and Jason, and yet she continued to nod through everything.

Finally, she turned to Alpha and Zordon once things were finished. "Looks like it's time to let them know what Billy and I have been working on, yeah?" She said. She turned back to the rangers and took a deep breath. "Before Billy left he and I started working on a new power source just in case something like this happened. We weren't sure if we _were_ going to need it but I guess there's no time better."

Tanya briefly closed her eyes and held up her hand. "Wait a minute. You created a new power source for us?

"How come you never said anything before?" Adam added. He watched as Bailey hurried over to one of the computers and her fingers started to fly over the keyboard.

"Like I said, Billy and I weren't sure if we would ever need to unveil it. But this Divatox shield sounds like a bloody piece of work. If your Zeo powers can't handle them, then we'll definitely need this. I reckon this will be the best test drive of anything so if there are issues we can get them out of the way as soon as possible."

"What sort of issues?" Tommy asked warily.

"Your zord might blow up while you're piloting it. But there's a _very_ slim chance of that happening." Bailey smiled a little and turned away from the computer. She pushed her glasses up her freckled nose and thought for a moment. "You said you lot will have to pass through the Nemesis Triangle?"

"Precisely," Zordon agreed. "The zords you now possess will not withstand the passage through."

"The force of the triangle has mangled many power sources. Your Zeo zord powers are not equipped to handle the surge in energy form this phenomenon," Alpha added.

"These new zords must possess a capability and power that will carry you through this quest."

"So sort of like undercover," Adam suggested.

Bailey snapped her fingers and pointed at him. "Exactly like that. But they have to be able to travel across numerous terrains to get to the launch pad to take you to the Nemesis Triangle. You lot can't just teleport there." She continued to move from computer to computer, imputing different keys and figures. The computer screen she stopped at continued to flash bright colors as the seconds passed before she grinned, taking a step back. "Done!"

A panel on the side of the Power Chamber opened and Tommy, Adam, Kat, and Tanya slowly walked towards it as smoke poured out. Bailey and Alpha followed along with them.

"The transfer of powers is complete," Alpha said.

"Rangers, prepare to behold your new Turbo zords," Zordon added.

Six pairs of headlights suddenly shone through the darkness, illuminating the rangers with bright light accompanied by the sound of engines roaring to life. Then the darkness slowly lifted into familiar bright colors the rangers had become accustomed to for the past couple of years of their lives. Adam's face screwed up as he watched the cars slowly roll toward them.

"But they're just cars," Tanya commented, as if reading Adam's mind.

"These are your new Tubro zords. Vehicles equipped with the power and velocity of the turbo technology," Bailey explained. She cleared her throat. "Billy and I worked really hard on these powers, taking ideas from past ranger teams; what worked and what didn't work, to make sure these zords are above and beyond what's needed to win."

"It will also safely take you through the Nemesis Triangle," Alpha said. "And merged together will create the Turbo Megazord."

Adam's eyes immediately moved to the green SUV that rolled towards him. He slowly started to smile, already feeling the power of the zord connect with him. "Adam, Desert Thunder will be yours to command," Zordon explained.

"Katherine, yours is Wind Chaser."

"Tanya; Dune Star is your zord."

"And Tommy, Red Lightning will serve you well."

Adam's eyes then shifted over to the two zords that were left over. One in blue and the other in orange. He looked over at Tommy and found he was looking at the two zords with eyebrows furrowed in concern as well. What were they going to do with Rocky out of commission in the hospital—though with his Zeo Powers continuously growing every day he should heal fairly soon. _But Zordon just said the Zeo Powers were no more,_ Adam reminded himself. _Does that mean his recover time will slow down?_

"What about Rocky's?" He finally asked.

"The Mountain Blaster zord will stay behind for now," Bailey explained. "But I'll handle the Wild Fire Turbo zord for Av."

"So you're going to morph into the orange ranger?" Tommy asked her.

Bailey smiled and shook her head. "No, she's still the orange ranger. These Turbo powers are made for her. But anyone who is aligned with the rangers will be able to pilot the vehicles in the off chance there is something that goes wrong and one of you are out of commission. But, of course, your main vehicle is yours."

"And don't forget rangers, once you pass through the Nemesis Triangle, all communication with the Power Chamber will be lost," Alpha explained.

She pointed to a podium that sat on the other side of the room before motioning for her friends to follow her. "These are your new Turbo Morphers. They're individual keys that will power up your vehicles and give you access to morph."

"They're much like Lerigot's Gold Key that will take you through the Nemesis Triangle. But together and only together will they be powerful enough to see you safely through your mission. Please step forward and accept your powers." The rangers did as Zordon said and picked up their Turbo morphers, immediately morphing into their new power ranger suits as they did so. Bailey picked up Avalon's morpher, leaving Rocky's behind to shine forlornly.

"Take your zords across the desert to the sea," Zordon instructed. "There you will find the Ghost Galleon, a phantom ship that'll take you and your zords through the Nemesis Triangle."

"You must merge the power of your keys the moment you cross the triangle," Alpha insisted.

"The combined power of your keys with the Ghost Galleon will see you through safely. Neither your ship nor your zords will be detected by Divatox."

"Does Divatox know about the keys?" Kat asked.

"No, she will not expect you to pass through the triangle," Alpha reassured them.

Tommy walked over to a bench on the other side of the Power Chamber and grabbed an envelope. Once having returned from being tricked by Divatox he knew there was a chance they wouldn't make it to the tournament so he and Adam wrote a letter to their coach. "Make sure that Coach Daniels gets this," he said to Alpha. "In case we're not back in time for the tournament he needs to send out another team."

"You got it, Tommy," Alpha said, taking the envelope. "Ay yi yi! I miss you already rangers. Be careful!"

Adam clenched his glove covered fists, looking over his new suit. He could already feel the power coursing through his veins, making him stronger by the second. They _had_ to get to the Ghost Galleon and make it through the Nemesis Triangle before Divatox could make it to Muiranthias and rendezvous with Maligore. Anything that got in their way wouldn't stand a chance against them with the Turbo powers.

"The safety of the universe depends on all of you," Zordon said. "Good luck and may the power protect you." Zordon teleported the rangers out of the Power Chamber and turned his attention to Alpha. "Alpha, contact Rocky; we must proceed with our other plan."

"Right away, Zordon!"

* * *

"Av?"

"Hm?" Avalon turned away from the pieces of metal that were crudely forced together in her hands to eye Kimberly as he neared her. Actually she was a little surprised to find that Kimberly was speaking to her. She had been a little harsh to the former pink ranger and her best friend when she spoke about Billy. Not many people knew what had gone on between them simply because she refused to talk or even think about it. It wasn't Kim's fault it still hurt.

"I wanted to apologize for what I said earlier," Kimberly said slowly. She twisted her fingers together as she stood by the orange ranger. "I didn't know things were that bad between you and Billy. If I did know I certainly wouldn't have said anything. Especially with the predicament we're currently in."

Avalon pressed her lips together for a minute. Then she looked away and ran a hand through her hair. "It's not your fault, Kim. Like you said, you didn't know, yeah?" She glanced at Kimberly out of the corner of her eye and added, "But because I can tell that your curiosity isn't going to be quelled until I tell you…Billy and I broke up."

Kimberly's eyes widened and she brought a hand up to her mouth.

Avalon gave her a funny look. "I didn't say my dog died, Kim, just that we broke up." She shrugged. "He was going to this Peace Conference thing and then went off to college and the distance wasn't going to work. We broke up right before I went back to Australia with my mum and Bay."

"…You…you don't seem very upset about it," Kim pointed out. "I mean, other than the not talking about it thing."

"Because I'm not talking about it," Avalon said forcefully. She looked over at Jason as he stood across the bilge, continuing to fiddle with his own weapon, almost as if he was doing his best not to eavesdrop. Not that it was easy to do when the bilge was only so big. "I _don't_ want to talk about it. It's not important right now and I don't want to dwell." Avalon closed her eyes, turning away from the pink ranger. She didn't even want to think about it when she was alone so she tried to keep herself busy.

Actually it was the only reason she agreed to go scuba diving as well; just to keep her mind off him. It was a hard breakup to have; neither of them wanted to but knew it was the best thing due to the long distance. It would've been too hard with the time differences and busy schedules and everything…the only thing that hurt worse was having not spoken to him since then.

"I'm sorry," Kimberly said again.

"Okay, if you keep saying 'I'm sorry' then I'm going to have to punch you," Avalon warned.

Kimberly pouted then gave her a mock stern look. "Good to know that all of this hasn't taken away from your sense of humor."

"One thing I've learned from being in the Vipers is to be sure that I know a serious situation when I see one. And this is certainly serious." Avalon blew her hair out of her face. "And this Divatox has managed to _seriously_ piss me off!"

"Keep that anger, Avie, because I'm sure we could use it," Jason remarked. He motioned for her to move aside and she did as she was told. "Hey Kim, move away from the wall for a minute." Kimberly did as she was told as well and the girls watched as he knelt down by a panel on the wall. He moved his hands along the edges, following the rounded pattern, then placed his hands on his hips.

"What's up, Jason?" Kimberly asked.

"Instead of making weapons we should focus on getting this panel off," he remarked.

Avalon and Kimberly both made faces. "Wouldn't that mean all of the water would come in?" Kimberly asked.

"Yeah, I don't know about you, but I don't plan on drowning anytime soon," Avalon added.

"According to my dive watch we're at 400 feet below surface. Once we get closer to Muiranthias they'll start to rise. Once we reach 100 feet we open the panel and boom." He motioned towards the surface."

"And make it all in one breath?" Avalon questioned. Her eyebrows rose as she thought about what Jason suggested. It wouldn't be so hard for her; she could hold her breath for up to four minutes or so after all of the years of surfing had taught her. But with all of that pressure overhead that would make things harder in general.

Especially the risk of coming up too fast and getting the bends; where there was too much gas bubbles in the blood stream that caused sickness, paralysis, and even death if they body didn't become accustomed to it.

"It's our only chance of making it out of here," Jason pointed out. He crossed his arms and nodded over towards Avalon. "As a test, you think you can knock one of the bolts off?"

Avalon nodded and brought out her morpher. She tried to morph then frowned finding that she couldn't do it. A few more tries yielded the same results and she sighed in exasperation. First they couldn't fend off those things that attacked them while in the water, now she couldn't get them out of the bilge they were stuck in. Mentally she had a map of what the submarine looked like and could probably lead their way out that way, but having to make it out in a way that was the most susceptible to damage?

 _You've gone thought a lot more than this, Av, you can do this, too,_ Avalon reminded herself.

The three then went to work, taking off as many of the nuts and bolts that held the panels in place as they could. Avalon found with each swing of her weapon against a bolt it would become looser and looser the more anger and frustration she put into it. As they worked she found Kimberly's movements started to slow and her gaze become unfocused.

"Uh, uh, don't do that, Pinkerbell," She said, noticing Kimberly's sadness. "We're going to get out of here. We have three of them already."

"Yeah, before you know it we'll be celebrating with our friends at the martial arts tournament," Jason added.

Avalon looked over as Kimberly lowered her gaze even further towards her feet and shook her head when she found some of Kimberly's fingers were bleeding. Sitting down, Avalon gently grasped Kimberly's hands and dipped them into the salt water, watching as her friend winced, before gently scrubbing the blood away

"I just wish there was more we could do to help," Kimberly said. She nodded over to Jason. "If we still had our powers…"

"I don't know if you've noticed, but I don't have my powers either, mate," Avalon pointed out.

"I know, but…I haven't had my powers for a long time. And Jason just recently lost his. Maybe we could've been able to do something beforehand. Track them before they came to attack us, maybe got in contact with the other rangers."

"There's no point in dwelling about it now," Jason reminded her. "Being this negative…that's not what a power ranger does. We always have to stay positive and think about how we're going to get out of this thing."

Avalon nodded in agreement. She dropped Kimberly's hands back into her lap and moved to get back to loosening the bolts. A shadow moved over her face and she looked up to find a Pirranatron moving over the grate above them. Her eyes narrowed for a moment and she took a step forward, tilting her head to look up above them. A Pirranatron moved back and forth, stacking tins together. _At least they're going to feed us,_ she thought.

Then an idea came to her as the grate opened and three metal tins slowly lowered to the floor of the bilge. Without taking a chance to think, Avalon rushed forward and grabbed onto the string and pulled as hard as she could. A Pirranatron came flying down into the bottom of the bilge and Avalon immediately launched into her attack against it.

Just a she thought would happen; a few more Pirranatrons came down to defend their comrades. Even from Bulk's and Skull's cells they could hear the sounds of terrified screaming. Avalon rolled her eyes a little, even with their brains scrambled around a bit Bulk and Skull still seemed to be afraid when they came face to face with a new creature. But that also meant there was either another door in there that lead to the main part of the submarine or there was a ceiling panel as well. Maybe a different way out.

Avalon, Jason, and Kimberly took on the Pirrantarons with as much gusto as possible. Now that they were on two feet they had better leverage against their captors. Avalon sent strong punches and kicks to the chest plate of the Pirranatron. "Fuck!" She shook out one hand as she landed a direct hit to a Pirranatron's chest. A rush of pain flooded her body but she ignored it, still fighting as hard as she could. They had to get out of the bilge in any way possible and if this was the way to do it then so be it.

The Pirranatraon raced towards her and she leapt backwards and planted her feet against the wall behind her. Then, springing forward she leapt over the Pirrantaron so that it ran into the wall. Dazed, it stumbled around and Avalon did a screw-kick and kicked it once more, sending it flying to the ground.

Kimberly leapt into the air in a split and the Pirrantaron raced underneath her. She did two consecutive backhand springs then landed on her feet. Bending back on her left foot she kicked high with her right and struck the Pirranatron in the face. It fell onto its back and Kimberly leaned forward, pressing her hands against the Pirranatron's chest and flipped over once more, kicking back and struck it in the face.

Jason fought as hard as did with any of his martial arts practices. His kiais echoed along the walls of the room as he knocked his Pirranatron silly though it continued to come back towards him. He planted himself firmly along the ground despite the submarine slowly rising and lowering within the ocean water. It tried to grab onto his arm as it extended out into a punch and Jason twisted his body underneath the Pirranatron and lifted his knee into its chest. Then he flipped it over onto the ground, splashing water everywhere.

Avalon shifted backwards, waiting for the Pirranatron to come towards her once more. All of a sudden her body tingled rapidly and she felt she lost control of her hands. A scream escaped her throat before she hit the ground, still shaking. Looking over, she found Kimberly and Jason shaking on the ground as well. Finally, it stopped and she rolled onto her back, gasping for air. Her eyes drifted over to the open grate where she could see a well dressed woman pulling back her finger.

It must've been Divatox. Her fingertip sparkled with little crackles of electricity. She must've been the one that had shocked them.

"That'll teach you," She said. "I can't have you getting away before we get to Muiranthias. I'm sure Maligore won't mind you being a little bit crispy."

Darkness surrounded her and Avalon's head fell to the side as she passed out.


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 07**

* * *

"But I don't get it," Justin said. He tilted his head to the side, looking directly at Rocky. "Why did the power choose you guys? Was it something you did specifically?"

"We don't know," Rocky said quietly. Just in case a nurse or doctor came in when they weren't paying attention. "The Great Power is something none of us have been able to understand completely. I don't know if Zordon and Alpha completely understand what The Great Power is. And that was from the powers we got through the Azurite Healiodore as well. None of us have an idea of what it was about our original powers, the Mighty Morphin' powers, that caused us to be able to take them on."

Justin nodded then leaned back in his seat. His eyes widened as he listened to what Rocky had to say. Then he sat up straight, pulling his legs together to sit Indian style and frowned. "So what was it like, trying to take down all of those monsters and everything?"

Rocky chuckled as he shifted up on his bed a bit further. He tried not to move too quickly, shockwaves of pain continued to flow through his body. He back surgery wasn't scheduled for a while, the doctors wanted to see how well his back healed first before determining whether or not to finalize the appointment. However, he had Justin for company as soon as he arrived and not just because he was worried about Rocky.

But because he knew Rocky and the others were the power rangers. How was he to know that the time he was napping, right when his friends came into the room to see how he was doing, that Justin had snuck into the room and hid under his bed? It wasn't strange as to why Justin was hiding, he wasn't supposed to be at the hospital, everyone working at the shelter probably hadn't known he left, and visiting hours were just ending. Not even his family had arrived by that point.

And Justin had been there to hear them speak about Zordon and needing to leave to see what was going on. Rocky's heart sank when Justin had pulled himself out from underneath the bed and gaped at them asking, "You guys are the power rangers?"

A chill ran down Rocky's body and he shook his head thinking, _Great, I pulled an Avalon_ in reference to how many people had directly found out about the rangers' identities due to her having to morph in front of them to save them.

"You _are_ aren't you?!" Justin continued before Rocky could figure out what to say. "I knew it! I knew there was something you guys were hiding. You mean you really go around and save the city all the time?"

And since then Justin came by whenever he could to ask him question about being a power ranger. There were times where he asked some really philosophical questions; wondering what would happen if they were to let the police take care of a crime but they didn't make it in time? Were the power rangers supposed to step in or were they supposed to let things continue to happen?

"It can actually be pretty fun at times," Rocky explained. A wistful smile came to his face. "It's a great way to get some exercise when fighting against Cogs or Putties or Tengas. And it can get me out of some situations I don't want to be in sometimes." He frowned. "Other times it can be a drawback; I don't get to spend as much time with my family as I want, I have to keep secrets, we can't have so many friends outside of us in case they're in danger…it's really hard."

He licked his lips and took a deep breath. This was the part of the conversation that was going to be harder to have; he and the rest of his friends were already teens brought into an intergalactic war. In many ways they were like child soldiers. But now to bring in an _actual_ child?

 _I hope Zordon knows what he's doing,_ Rocky thought. He mentally blessed himself and said. "Justin, now that you know we're rangers, there's something very important I need to tell you."

Justin's eyes widened and he sat up, waiting eagerly for whatever confidential information coming his way.

"There's a new threat we have to stop, her name's Divatox. She and her foot soldiers, the Pirranatrons, have taken some of our friends and are threatening to bring a very evil and malicious being to Earth. We need your help to stop him."

Justin's eyes widened even further as he reached up and pointed to himself. "Me? What can I do?" His voice trembled slightly and Rocky was unsure if it was due to fear or excitement.

"I can't…right now I can't be a ranger. I'm too hurt to do it. I wouldn't be able to keep up, to help my friends. Zordon and Alpha have already explained it to me…" _Convinced me might be the better term,_ Rocky reminded himself. "They truly believe you're the best person to take on the role of the Blue Power ranger."

"Me?"

"Yes, you."

"But what can I do? Aren't I too young to be a ranger? I don't even have my driver's license yet!"

Rocky chuckled, briefly closing his eyes. This was crazy. Yet he'd done much crazier things over the past two years. "I'm sure they can explain it better than I can. They're going to teleport you to the Power Chamber."

Now Justin's eyebrows came together as he realized the intensity of Rocky's words. "Do you really think I can do this?"

"I think you can. I haven't gone against what Zordon and Alpha have told me in long time and I don't think I need to go against them on this one. This is something you can do. You were destined to find out we were rangers for some reason. Maybe this is your reason. You're part of a family now, Justin. Our ranger family. There's always going to be someone there for you, but you have to be there for them first."

Justin took a deep breath and nodded.

"Now, the teleportation process is a little weird at first and it'll take some time to get used to—"

Rocky was cut off as there was a sudden blast of blue light that shot through the room. He closed his eyes against the light, slowly peeking them open to adjust once it dissipated. He glanced at the chair Justin had been sitting in before, noticing it was now empty. Leaning his head back, Rocky rested his head into the pillow, closing his eyes.

He hoped Zordon knew what he was doing.

* * *

When Justin arrived at the Power Chamber he turned in a few quick circles, taking in everything around him. Alpha tottered close to him, ready to introduce himself, but Justin darted over to the wall that held the rangers' former suits and pressed his hands against the glass.

"Wow! I can't believe it! This is all so cool!" Justin then leaned forward and pressed his face against the glass. His breath fogged it up as he moved down the line, looking over the suits and weapons. Finally, he turned around and looked at Alpha and Zordon. "Are you Alpha?"

"Yes, it's great to meet you, Justin." Alpha reached out his hand and placed it on Justin's shoulder, directing him towards Zordon's power tube. "Ant this is Zordon."

"Wow." Justin tilted his head so that he could look at the floating head. Zordon smiled and nodded down at him. "It's nice to meet both of you. It's awesome to be here, but…" he licked his lips. "How am I supposed to help? I'm just a kid."

"Staying in that mindset will do nothing to help you see your true potential, there are many qualities to you that'll prove you to be an effective power ranger."

If it were possible, Justin's eyes widened even further. "Me a power ranger? I thought you'd want me to help out there or something. I mean, I know I'm really good at science and everything to help the power rangers. But to _be_ a power ranger!"

"Justin, we don't have much time!" Alpha interrupted, waving his hands up and down. "Divatox is already on her way to Muiranthias to bring back Maligore! The rangers are on their way to the Ghost Galleon and some of our friends have been kidnapped by her! We need your help and we need it now!"

Justin swallowed hard and lowered his head for a minute. He closed his eyes, chewed his lower lips, and clenched his hands into fists. They shook a little. Then he shook out his hands and looked up once more, this time determination filling his eyes. "What do you need me to do?"

Zordon nodded once more. "Alpha, get Justin the Turbo morpher!"

Immediately, Justin's determined resolve broke into unbridled excitement. "I get the morpher, too?! This is so awesome!" He immediately cleared his throat and calmed down. "I mean, this must be serious."

Alpha walked back over to Justin, holding out his morpher. "This morpher also works as the key to your Mountain Blaster zord. It will drive you to where the other rangers are waiting for you. This is your communicator, not only will it let you talk to the other rangers, but you'll contact us as well." Alpha pressed the turbo morpher into his hand and Justin gasped as there was a flash of light and he was suddenly in his suit.

"Whoa. Cool." His voice came muffled from behind his new helmet. Reaching up, Justin pulled it off then rested it against his hip.

"By accepting this honor you are also accepting a great responsibility," Zordon stated. Across the Power Chamber a wall opened, revealing a revving jeep. Justin grinned as it gently rolled closer, making rhythmic sounds as he did so. "As the newest ranger you must take your lead from the others and use the powers wisely. You will command the Mountain Blaster and henceforth be known as the blue ranger. Good luck and may the power protect you."

Justin nodded and demorphed, glancing at the morpher on his wrist with a smile. Finally, he turned back to the two mentors. "But what about Rocky, what'll he do?"

"Right now, Rocky needs to focus on his recovery. Now go, the Mountain Blaster will take you the other's coordinates. You need to leave or else the Ghost Galleon will leave without you. This is a mission that can't be done without all of the rangers."

"You got it. You can count on me! I promise!" Justin raced over to the Mountain Blaster, exclaiming how cool it was once more when the door opened for him. He climbed into the front seat and made sure to buckle up before grabbing onto the steering wheel. "Okay, do you think you can get me to the rangers?" He jumped as the car suddenly roared to life and backed out of the Power Chamber.

Then it turned around and shot forward out of a door that opened from its hidden space underground. Then the Mountain Blaster directed itself to the desert and started to pick up speed, going faster and faster as the seconds passed. With the car's speed, Justin felt himself pushed back into his seat, an almost manic grin splitting his face from ear to ear. As the Mountain Blaster continued to pilot itself the sky darkened, giving Justin a view of the colorful sky over the mountain peaks. Finally, Mountain Blaster headed towards the seaside and Justin caught the last view glimpses of the sun sinking behind the horizon, light skipping over the water.

He pulled up to the dock just in time to see the rangers slowly turn away from what looked like a pirate ship sitting beside him. Eagerly, Justin tuned off Mountain Blaster and climbed out of the car, slamming the door shut.

"That was so cool!" He said, hurrying over to the rangers at a light jog. "Hi, guys!"

"Justin, what are you doing here?" Tanya asked, gaping at him. Justin looked over the stunned expressions on the ranger's faces, his excitement infallible.

"Rocky couldn't make it, so they sent me," Justin explained, matter-of-fact.

"What are you talking about?" Kat asked.

"I'm the new blue ranger! Isn't that cool or what?" Now Justin couldn't help but notice the rangers looked a little dismayed as they exchanged glances once more. "Rocky really wanted to be here but he wasn't able to come…is back was hurting too much. He's not able to get out of the hospital."

"But is he okay?" Adam pressed.

"He's fine. I found out that you guys were rangers and Rocky and I were talking about it and he and Alpha and Zordon all agreed I was the best choice to replace him!" He didn't seem to notice Adam's frustrated wince before he turned away, running a hand through his hair. Tanya stepped away to comfort him as Tommy moved towards Justin.

He knelt down and placed his hands on Justin's shoulders. "Justin…I don't think this is a good idea.

"Why not?" Justin frowned.

"Because you might get hurt, mate," Bailey said, taking a step forward so that she could speak to Justin too. "All of this is really dangerous."

"So? You're here, too," Justin reminded her. "Isn't it dangerous for you?"

"I'm older than you," Bailey said.

"Not by much."

"But I've been around this environment; I was the one who created the Turbo powers!"

"You did?! Great job, it's so awesome!"

"Justin," Tommy started once more.

Kat reached out her hand and placed it on Tommy's shoulder. He turned to look up at her and once locking eyes, she knelt down by his side. "If Zordon and Alpha think this is a good idea then it's a good idea. I don't think anyone's going to be able to talk him out of this. We'll just have to look after him okay?"

Tommy continued to hesitate and it wasn't until Kat reached down and gently took his hand that he finally nodded, standing up. Justin released the breath he was holding, knowing things were going his way. He wasn't going to be sent home.

"I was afraid I wasn't going to make it. It's a good thing you don't need a license to drive a zord," he remarked, looking around. "I promise I'll do my best to make Rocky proud. To know I'm taking his spot…" Justin pressed his lips together once more, trying to keep tears from coming to his eyes. It was hard to see Rocky in a hospital bed like that, even harder to leave him there knowing everything he had done as a ranger and now taking his spot. "I just want to help."

"It's okay, man. Don't worry about it." Tommy patted him on the shoulder and the group turned back towards Adam and Tanya who were still talking quietly. Tommy's eyebrows came together as he watched Adam cross his arms and Tanya take a step closer to him, placing her hand on his shoulder and putting her face close to his.

He and Kat exchanged a knowing glance.

Bailey smiled a little, shaking her head.

"What are we looking at?" Justin asked.

His question wafted over the water and Adam and Tanya looked at each other before taking a step apart. Tommy then led the way back to their zords and the rangers carefully drove them onto the ship before going up on deck to see what the ship had in store for them. Waving flashlights around they noticed the cobwebs and spiders scuttling over the masts and the door of the deck. It clearly hadn't been used in a while. The canons and bells were covered in dust and the steering wheel appeared to be rotting away.

Then he noticed a bejeweled chest. "Hey guys! Look at this!" He called. Flipping open the top of the box, the older rangers shined their flashlights onto the contents of the box, revealing what looked like key holes. "What is it?"

"Looks like the port keys also command the ship," Kat murmured, looking over the key holes. She reached out and gently ran her fingertip over it. Then she looked up at Tommy, who looked back at her, nodding.

"Let's do it." With that, the rangers reached out and placed their keys inside the keyholes, twisting them. As soon as they were all in place a light glowed from inside the box and the ship started to move.

The masts rose, the bell rang, and the steering wheel started to turn, pulling the boat away from the dock. Justin turned and smiled as he watched the dock get smaller and smaller, moving out to sea.

"Well, we can't turn back now," Bailey said, pulling her jacket tighter around her shoulders. "Muiranthias, here we come."

"What's on Muiranthias?" Justin asked.

"Hopefully something that's not too bad," Adam remarked. He stretched his arms over his head, watching the waves against the side of the boat. "But we should probably go down and go to sleep. It's been a long day and with how fast this ship is moving, we'll be at Muiranthias sometime tomorrow."

"Don't you think we should go over a game plan first?" Tanya asked.

Bailey shook her head. "Right now, we're dealing with the emotions of losing Rocky and Kimberly, and Jase, and Av…we need the rest. We'll be more focused on what we'll do when we get to Muiranthias rather than force a half-baked plan tonight, yeah?" She looked to her older brother for confirmation.

Tommy thought for a moment, rubbing his chin, then nodded. "Yeah, we'll get out plan together tomorrow. Let's get some sleep."

The group went below deck and Justin hurried over to a small cot that had been set up, pulling a blanket up over himself. He watched as the rangers milled around for a few moments, using a kerosene lamp as a source of light. Tommy was the last one who moved to settle down, watching the others as they went to their own cots. Adam lay down with his back to the rangers on a cot next to Tanya, who lay facing him.

"Rocky's going to be okay, Adam," Tanya reassured him. "He was the one who wanted this."

"I know," Adam whispered back. "It's just…knowing that Aisha _and_ Rocky are now gone…it's sort of hard. We came to this team together and now…" He raised and lowered a hand to the cot, gently slapping it. "And Divatox has Jason and Kim and Av, too. Obviously she's more competent than the other guys we've gone after."

"You just have to keep your faith. That's the only thing that'll help you make it through. And knowing you have a team, your friends, to back you up."

Adam nodded. "Thanks, Tanya."

"You're welcome," Tanya replied.

Bailey pulled up her blankets as Tommy tucked her in. "Do you think the others are going to be okay? If Divatox gets them to Muiranthias before we can get there…who knows what'll happen to them once Maligore is released."

"Hey, if I know these guys, they're not going to let anyone take them down without a fight," Tommy reassured her. "Jason wasn't the leader of the power rangers for nothing. Kimberly is stronger than she looks and Av is as tough as nails. They'll probably be waiting for us by the time we get there."

Bailey smiled and scooted down, pulling her blanket up over her shoulder.

"I hope," Tommy added in a low whisper.

"Don't worry about them, Tommy, right now we have to worry about getting through the Nemesis Triangle." Kat looked up over her head and smiled a little. "And if this ship is as strong as it looks then we'll have no problems getting through it." She reached out and rested her hand over her communicator. "I wish we could talk to them, though."

Tommy nodded in agreement.

"We should probably get some sleep, too," she said.

"Yeah, good night then," Tommy agreed.

"Good night." Kat leaned in and kissed his cheek before settling in for sleep on her bed.

Justin finally closed his eyes as Tommy blew out the kerosene lamp and plunged the cabin into darkness. The wood around them creaked and groaned as the water lapped outside. It was such a lullaby that Justin fell asleep only seconds after his head hit the pillow.

* * *

"Oh man, my fingers are still shaking," Jason commented, holding up his hand for proof. The weapon he used to take off the bolts on the panel on the wall shook along with his hand.

Avalon rolled her eyes, pausing for a moment from her own motions knocking onto a bolt that was hanging on by a thread. "Okay, so it wasn't the best idea I'd ever had, so sue me." She blew her long hair from her face and stood up to stretch her back. "At least I did something!"

"Your best idea was joining with us in the first place, I don't think you can top that," Kimberly reminded her.

Avalon smirked at her. "Oh, you mean when you lot wouldn't leave me alone?"

Jason tilted his head back as his friends gently bickered with each other. "Are you seriously going to argue about _that_ now? We've already heard what store in the mall is better, makeup tips, and why high-heels are better than flats."

"They are!" Kimberly insisted.

Jason ignored her. "And for _that_ on we even had Bulk and Skull chimed in on that one!"

He gestured towards the other cell where Bulk's and Skull's faces were pressed into the bars to watch the rangers and their progress. "The higher the heels, the longer the legs!" Skull declared in his Spanish accent.

"No, comfort over style!" Bulk shot back.

"On that argument I have to go with the flats, only because you use your feet enough in martial arts that excessive use of heels will ultimately damage your feet," Jason denied, causing Avalon to cheer. He brought his hands up and rested them against his forehead before crouching low to the ground. "I'm going stir crazy over here. I just need to know what they're doing."

"I think we figured that out already, Rudolph," Avalon said diplomatically. "They want us as human sacrifices for the—"She suddenly cut off as a different sound reached their ears. She looked around then pointed by Jason's leg. "Look! Water's coming in!"

Jason removed his hands from his face and looked at the stream of water that started to come down from the panel they had been working on. He started to move back to taking the bolt off when he heard another sound. This one was voices and the sound of a door opening. Quickly, Jason turned around and pressed his back against the wall, slowly sliding down until his butt reached the floor, effectively cutting off the water flow.

He looked up just as a door to the room opened and Divatox, Rygog, Elgar, and a Pirranatron walked into the room. At one point Rygog got stuck in the doorway due to his massive size and Elgar had to force him to his side to get him through the door.

"Grab them!" Divatox declared.

Avalon and Kimberly immediately tried to get out of Rygog's and Elgar's grasps once they were stuck in their grasp. Jason struggled to stay on the ground as the Pirranatron grabbed him and tried to pull him to his feet. Jason continued to twist back and forth, doing his best to keep his back against the flow of water in case their ruse had been discovered.

His heart hammered against his chest before he was suddenly struck with a searing pain, causing him to hold onto his stomach as he fell to the side. He moved a little but kept his body in place of the water that came in. Squinting open an eye, Jason noticed Divatox sauntering towards him with a deliberately slow stride. She reached out her foot and placed it against his chest and pushed him back up into a sitting position.

"This must be a strong one if he's able to fend you off so easily," she murmured, looking him over. Jason kept his mouth shut, listening and waiting. "Then again, you rusting bucket of bolts aren't so hard to have throw their weight around." She turned back to Jason and grabbed him by the jaw, pressing the tips of her fingernails into his cheeks. "I just might have to keep this one for myself."

"Leave him alone!" Avalon cried.

Jason's eyes shifted to her and he found her struggling hard against Elgar's grasp. Every now and then she would jump up, kicking her feet in the air before landing on the ground. She was obviously trying her hardest to use Elgar's weight against him to throw him over her head. But he held on too tightly.

Even Rygog, whose arms length was shorter than Elgar, was struggling to hold onto Kimberly, who twisted back and forth, practically foaming at the mouth as she tried to break free.

"You're giving them all to Maligore, remember?" Rygog pointed out. "Three rangers are better than two."

"Yeah, think of how strong he'll be," Elgar continued. "Those other ranger do-do's won't stand a chance!"

Divatox's upper lip curled. Finally, she knelt down in front of Jason and stared at him, eyes narrowing. "You won't make any more trouble for us will you?" She demanded in a low growl. "You've already taken out some of my Pirranatrons and even then you wouldn't stay down after I shocked you. Your power within Maligore will make our ruling very strong. If only I could find a way to use that power myself."

Jason chuckled. This wasn't the first time he was face to face with someone that wanted him destroyed. Goldar and Rita had him in their grasp moreover than anyone else and he still managed to stay on top. Even if Divatox wanted to save him for last he wouldn't give her the satisfaction of using his power for her selfish gain. Besides, he had to make sure Kimberly and Avalon were safe.

Whatever words Jason had for Divatox were robbed when Divatox leaned in and gave him a very forceful kiss, her sharp canines breaking into his lips, causing him to bleed. Jason recoiled and turned away from her, spitting blood into the water. Divatox reached around and grabbed a fistful of his hair, forcing him to look at her once more. Her eyes blazed into his before she finally released his hair, practically throwing it back into the panel behind him. His skull connected with metal and stars exploded in front of his eyes.

It took him a few minutes to get his eyesight back once more and by then Divatox and her cronies had left the room. Kimberly immediately hurried over to Jason and grabbed onto him, rolling him onto his back and resting her head in his lap. Avalon knelt down onto his other side, brown eyes searching his with concern.

"Jase, are you okay?" Kimberly asked. She reached out, brushing his hair out of his face.

"Oh yeah." He winced. "I've been hit much harder than that."

"By the metal or the heat blast from her eyes, mate?" Avalon asked. "I'm surprised your skin wasn't burnt off, yeah?"

"We must be getting closer if they're being more open about what they want," Kimberly realized.

Jason pressed his lips together as he listened to Kimberly's words. Even from where he was sitting he could feel pressure rising in his ears. They had to have been steadily rising. They were getting close. The needed to get out of there. Ignoring the pain that throbbed at the back of his head, Jason started to get to his feet but Kimberly pushed him back down once more.

"We need to leave," he said.

"Not until you're one hundred percent," Kimberly said firmly. Even looking up into her face Jason could see the strong concern that Kimberly exuded to all of her friends. He knew he wasn't going to get up anytime soon. "Jason, you nearly got your skull cracked. I mean, I've always called you hardheaded, but this is ridiculous." She giggled to herself as Jason smiled, closing his eyes.

Then he heard a clanging noise and saw Avalon had gone back to work on the bolts on the door. As if sensing he was looking at her, Avalon turned to him and smiled. "Rest for a while, I can take care of this."

"Are you pretending the bolts are my head?" He managed to ask.

"Yep. This one's for…" she paused for a second then whacked the bolts once more. "Not staying out of my business when we met." She hit the bolt again. "This one's for always being in my business now." Another one. "That one's for prom. That one's for rejection."

Jason smiled and rolled his eyes.

He noticed Kimberly's confused expression but didn't let in on the joke. Actually it was something he didn't know still bothered Avalon, then again rejection was always hard. But being rejected after kissing someone had to be harder, especially with what Avalon had been going through at the time. He was glad they were able to make fun about it now or else that would've been an air of awkwardness that continued to move through them. Though there was a little nagging in the back of his mind that wondered if she haphazardly mentioned it due to the conversation she had with Kimberly about Billy.

 _Billy would know what to do to get out of here,_ Jason realized. _It's probably what she's thinking about._ He felt for her.

Jason's eyes fluttered back open once more when he felt Kimberly's fingers move to the back of his head then press on a sore spot. He did his best not to wince as Kimberly shook her head. "I always thought you were an egg-head," she teased.

"Hey."

"Other than Billy, I don't know anyone who manages to stay on the football team and have so many different activities he's apart of and keep his grades up with little effort," Kimberly continued.

"Little effort? When you weren't so busy hogging Billy because you were failing practically everything, Trini was kicking my butt studying."

Almost as if Jason had said the secret word Avalon whipped around, her eyebrows rising. "Failing?" She repeated. "Little Miss. Kimberly was failing?"

"I wasn't failing, leave me alone." Kimberly pouted.

Jason laughed once more then swallowed hard. The nausea finally wore off and everything around him had stopped tilting and swaying. If anything he probably had a small concussion but he'd had them before, he would be okay. With a groan, Jason started to lean up, causing Kimberly to gasp in surprise and press a hand to his cheek.

"I'm okay, Kim, I promise," Jason said, pushing her hand aside. Unlike Divatox's grasp, Kimberly's was light and sweet, relieving him. "We need to get this thing off, we can't wait anymore." He got to his feet and went to the panel, picking up another weapon to help out Avalon, who had managed to knock out more bolts so more water poured in. "We can't wait much longer."

"Okay, but if you start to pass to or something, let us know," Kimberly said. She brushed off her hands and stared to help the others.

Within a few minutes the room started to fill up with more and more water. Then the sub started to tilt back and forth, the lights shining and dimming as they were rapidly thrown back and forth. Jason, Kimberly, and Avalon worked hard to pull the panel off, ignoring the water as it continued to rise from their ankles, to their calves, to their waists all within the matter of a few minutes. Finally, it became too submerged and the three had to hold their breath to even get to the top of the panel to continue working.

The pressure continued to pound in Jason's ears as they finally got most of the bolts off and moved the panel aside. Lowering his head, he gazed into the open space in front of them, watching little fish dart by and, what he hoped wasn't a shark.

Finally, he, Avalon, and Kimberly popped their heads back above water and grabbed onto the grate that had been at the ceiling before and was now a few feet over their heads. Coughing, Jason shook his head to move water from his face. "We've got to get Bulk and Skull first, and then we can get out of here."

"I'll get them," Avalon offered.

She pulled herself higher before taking a deep breath and sinking back under water. Jason took in a deep breath and did the same, though stayed in place so he could watched as Avalon kicked her way over to the door that connected to Bulk's and Skull's cell. She grabbed onto the door and started to turn it one way, before a pounding on the other side of the door signaled her to go the other. She twisted it over and pulled backwards, releasing Bulk and Skull from their prison.

Finally, when the group was safely on the rangers' side of the bilge, Jason gave his instructions to the others. "You have to let your breath our slowly on the way up. I promise you that you're all going to be okay. We're going to get out of here, alright?"

Kimberly, who was savvy enough o know when Jason had another hidden plan, reached out and grasped onto him. "What about you? What are you doing?"

"I'm going last, to make sure the rest of you guys get out of here," Jason explained. Kimberly then moved forward and wrapped her arms around him, holding on tightly. Jason let go of the grate above him with one hand and wrapped it around Kimberly in return. "Everything's going to be okay, Kim. I promise."

She nodded and held on a little bit longer before letting go. Jason looked over at Avalon and she locked eyes with him, nodding. He nodded back and the group took another deep breath before sinking under water. It took a few seconds of the salt to sting his eyes before Jason was able to clearly watch and encourage Bulk and Skull through the opening. They moved much more nimbly than he thought they would; then again, as Tommy had told him during their catch up calls the two had become certified lifeguards and had taken some time using that new certification one summer at the lake.

Kimberly was the next one to go through and when she went halfway, her shirt suddenly got caught against one of the bolts. Jason and Avalon immediately moved to her side and grabbed onto the shirt, frantically pulling at it as Kimberly kicked her legs and alternated between pulling herself forward and pushing herself back to break free.

Jason gritted his teeth, exchanging a glance with Avalon, who suddenly tapped him on the arm. One look at the intense expression on her face and he could see she had the same thought.

_The more she struggles, the less air she'll have._

Finally, Avalon took Jason's spot towards the bottom of the bilge at Kimberly's shirt and pulled hard, while Jason wrapped his arms around Kimberly's waist and lifted up as hard as he could. Finally, he felt her shirt rip away and Kimberly started to frantically thrash her legs to move through the opening. It was then Jason's lungs started to burn but he knew he still had time left before he absolutely ran out of air. Plenty of time, he just needed to relax.

Avalon moved through the opening in the sub next and just as Jason was starting to follow her a low rumbling sound reached their ears. Avalon twisted around at the sound and her eyes widened when she saw a metal plate slowly start to slide down between them. Jason noticed her start to turn around to grab his hand and pull him through, then lifted his body up and kicked out his foot, gently pushed Avalon forward and away from the plate. He moved his foot back just in time for the metal plate to fall into place.

 _Damn it!_ Jason kicked himself backwards and removed himself from the small opening and back into the bilge, where he was suddenly sucked to the floor. His eyebrows rose in surprise before he realized there was an increasing suction around him. The water was being taken out of the room but he was sucked to the ground.

Jason gritted his teeth as he started to twist back and forth. The suction was too strung and he found himself cemented to the floor. Tilting his head back, Jason watched as the water line slowly lowered towards him. Now his chest was really starting to burn, aching for the sweet release of oxygen his body craved. Silvery bubbles erupted from his mouth and rocketed towards the surface of the water.

For a second Jason couldn't help but open his mouth, causing some of his precious air to escape. Painfully, he closed his eyes and leaned forward, pressing his palms against the floor. His muscles swelled as he continued to exert force, trying to pull himself upwards. The movement proved to be disastrous. His chest started to rapidly undulate, his lungs screamed, and a muffled scream threatened to escape his lips.

He couldn't take it anymore.

He had to breathe.

Jason opened his mouth and screamed, finding his head burst through the water. He sucked in massive gulps of air and looked around as the water around him continued to rapidly decrease. It was then he noticed another vent had opened and excavated the rest of the water. Pressing a hand to his chest, Jason stretched out on the ground and stared up at the ceiling, breathing heavily. Tears—or was it water, he wasn't sure—spilled down his cheeks as he grinned.

He was so grateful he hardly paid attention to the grate being flung open and seeing Divatox leer down at him. He was so grateful he didn't hear her as she ranted over the lack of sacrifices she now had.

But he relished in how angry she looked knowing her plan was falling apart.

* * *

Avalon grabbed onto Kimberly's arms and hooked her own through them as she turned onto her back and started to kick across the surface of the water towards the beach behind them. Kimberly continued to tilt her head back, trying to catch her breath after her race to the surface. So far neither of them had seen Bulk or Skull—who they hoped had made it to the beach—nor Divatox's sub after them. At the moment they were okay.

"Where—where's Jason?" Kimberly finally asked.

Avalon shook her head as she continued to tread water towards the beach. "He didn't…he didn't make it. Something went wrong. Divatox must've noticed something. When he was following me a divider came down, blocking him off."

Kimberly suddenly sat up, the difference in balance causing Avalon's head to dunk underwater. "We have to go back for him!" Kimberly cried. "Jason!"

Avalon came back up, gasping for air. She tightened her grip onto Kimberly. "We can't or else we'll be captured, too. We need to get to land before we figure out anything else. I promise we'll save him, Pinkerbell, but it's not going to help if we're shark bait, yeah?"

Finally, the two girls reached the beach and as Kimberly frantically scanned the horizon, Avalon scanned the green forest that reached out to them. Then she looked over at the palm tree that stood nearby and walked over, picking up the coconut resting at the base. Reaching into the waistband of her shorts she pulled out a pocket knife and flipped it open. She hacked away at the fruit until a hole opened and she pressed it to her lips, tilting her head back so she got something to drink.

 _Compared to those witchetty grubs, this is like a bloody milkshake,_ she thought, nearly vomiting from the mere memory of the wiggling, crawling food Divatox had given them. _Even the squirb was better,_ she added, thinking of the food Dulcea had given them on Phaedos.

Avalon walked the fruit over to Kimberly and grasped her shoulder to get her attention. Kimberly gave her a grateful smile and took the coconut, pressing it to her lips to drink the milk inside. When she was finished, she handed it back to Avalon who made work of cracking it open.

"What do we do now?" Kimberly asked.

"Head in-land, see what's out there, maybe get to Maligore first." Avalon shook her head. "Not that we'd have any way to defend ourselves."

Kimberly gave a small smile. "Did you forget your Ninjetti training already? You have to trust your animal spirit."

Avalon was sure if she looked over at Kimberly she'd see the pink crane flying around her head.

As it was she could see her inner tiger growling happily, finally released after not having been used for a long time.


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 08**

* * *

Tommy rubbed his sore shoulder as he stood at the side of the _Ghost Galleon._ His eyes were narrowed as the salty sea air whipped his hair around his face. His thoughts were stuck on his friends as he wondered how they were doing.

Had Divatox hurt them? Had they already been sacrificed to Maligore? Even worse what had happened to them while they were in Divatox's custody? They were strong, they could handle themselves, and yet he worried about them. Especially Kimberly…she was stronger than a lot of people gave her credit for but when her spirit was broken it was hard to put back together. And as strong as she was, there was a point where that strength wore out and she became subdued. He had seen it many times before, especially when they were teasing each other and he would say something that would cross the line.

It'd be an accident, of course, but the pain would still be there. And he'd apologize and apologize and not feel that it was anything that could be apologized for. And yet after a while her eyes would light up once more and she'd smile that special smile for him and all would be good.

He was afraid of what would happen if he looked into her eyes this time. They weren't dating anymore but she was his first love and would probably be his biggest love for the rest of his life.

Then there was Avalon; they had their ups and downs since first meeting but now that they were siblings they got along very well, more than he thought they would. There were still some things from her past they were dealing with but she became a great second in command as rangers and was always supportive of his actions and whatever consequences came from them just as he was for her.

Then there was Jason, his best friend since he first arrived in Angel Grove who he could trade attacks with in sparring as well as verbally. Their friendship started out tense due to Tommy's being the evil ranger and Jason becoming his main target but since then it was like they were brothers. If there was anyone he knew that could talk anyone off a ledge and lead the rangers into battle without a shadow of a doubt it was Jason.

It had been an interesting couple of days since starting the chase after Lerigot.

They had already been attacked by some turtle-like sea creatures that had found their way on the ship; of which the rangers made quick work of them. He was impressed to see how Justin handled himself against the monsters that attacked. He expected the young boy to be a little more scared of the monsters the first time he encountered them but he went right into the fight without hesitation. The commotion is what brought the other rangers up onto the deck to see what was going on and they got into the fight as well.

It was then he and the other rangers realized that Divatox knew they were following her. The hardest thing to get over was knowing their cover had been blown. Zordon and Alpha had said they were supposed to be invisible to anyone who may have been tracking them. The turtle monsters had to be her doing. But if that was the best she had then she was certainly underestimating the power they had in their possession.

That hadn't been the most exciting part. Going through the Nemesis Triangle was more eventful than he thought it would be. Honestly, he wasn't quite sure what he expected of the Nemesis Triangle; maybe some sort of a simple energy field, maybe a monster protecting it, maybe it was invisible like the famed Bermuda Triangle. But he found it to be worse than all of that; almost like all of it combined.

The first thing he and the rangers saw was lightning flash in the distance. Then the waters became choppy and the ship rolled to and fro underneath their feet, almost as if the wood was rolling itself. Then the rangers went into their power packs and pulled out binoculars to look further ahead of them and found what looked like a concrete wall in front of them. A concrete wall made of energy, seeming to become absorbed by the lightning that continued to strike around them. The closer they came to the triangle the lightning blasts seemed to turn their attention to the ship, striking the masts and the deck, leaving scorch marks behind.

One blast came so close to Tommy that he could all his hair start to stand on end, seconds before Adam knocked him out of the way. Next thing he knew there was a brilliant light that nearly burned off his eyebrows from its accompanying heat, and a hole the size of his fist in the deck.

"Whoa, thanks man," Tommy breathed, patting Adam on the shoulder as the two got back up.

Adam reached out and patted Tommy on the back. "No problem, man."

"Looks like this is the Nemesis Triangle Zordon was talking about," Tanya said. She chewed her lower lip then let out a shriek of surprise a there was another blast of lightning, sending the rangers back onto the deck.

"It's not safe to be up here," Bailey explained, firmly grasping a railing next to her. She was flung back and forth as the ship rocked, like a rag doll. The wind picked up and she had to raise her voice to be heard over the roaring gusts and crashing waves. "Lightning strikes the tallest points, if the masts come down we'll be the next highest and we'll be hit. We'll need to go below deck, now!"

"Alright, let's go!" Tommy grasped Justin's shoulder with one hand and Kat's hand with the other before leading them down below deck. Once he made sure everyone was down there he commanded, "Looks like we're getting close. Pull out your keys, guys; we need them to get through the Nemesis Triangle."

 _For a moment there it didn't seem like we would make it through,_ Tommy reminded himself as he continued to watch over the smaller waves as the broke along the edge of the _Ghost Galleon._

He closed his eyes, feeling the fear and anxiety come up through his chest once more. Amongst the rocking of the ship and lightning exploding above Justin dropped his key a minute before he they made it through the triangle. Thankfully he managed to grab it at the right moment that they could put it together, literally only seconds before their bodies and the ship traveled through the wave of energy. That had been a strange sensation, even stranger than when Rita had taken him over to be the green ranger, staying in the back of his mind until he was weak enough for her to take over again.

But now they were growing closer and closer to Muiranthias. The only issue they had now…they lost Lerigot's energy to track it. Which only meant a few things; that Divatox was getting far ahead of them, that their accessories weren't working as well, or…that Lerigot had already been sacrificed once he and Divatox's sub had crossed through the triangle.

"Tommy?"

Turning, Tommy watched as Tanya walked his way. He nodded to her, looking out at the water once more. "We're getting closer," he remarked. "Closer to seeing what it is that Divatox and this Maligore guy has out for us."

"Much like every other monster we've faced," Tanya agreed. She tilted her head, curly hair blowing back into her face as she smiled. "Except this time I don't think they're going to try and take one of us over and convince us that we're part of their side."

Tommy rolled his eyes. "It wasn't that bad."

"For at least a week after, if I remember correctly, you kept using regal words when you were around us," Tanya said. She and Tommy laughed lightly to themselves. "Adam and I were talking about Rocky an this whole Justin thing. It's strange but…we think he'll be a good part of the team. Adam's taking it hard though."

"I can imagine," Tommy agreed. He took a deep breath through his nose. "Our team is constantly changing and as much as we're willing to open our arms to everyone it's scary. It started out as Jason, Kimberly, Trini, Billy, and Zack. They didn't have to add me to the team, but they did. We became like a family. Then Avalon and Bailey joined us. Before we knew it Jason, Trini, and Zack left and Rocky, Adam, and Aisha came in. Then Kimberly left and Kat came in, then Aisha left, and Billy left, and Bailey left and…" Tommy took a deep breath. "The team isn't the same as it has been but we keep getting stronger. But that doesn't mean we can't forget everyone we fought beside."

Tanya brought her hands back and laced them together behind her neck. "I just don't understand why he would want to hurt himself like that. That's what we were talking about. Seeing Justin in his place, in the Mountain Blaster zord…Rocky must've been going through a lot that none of us noticed."

"It happens. It's the same things with us, too," Tommy agreed. He noticed Tanya lower her gaze guiltily before turning away from him. There must've been something she didn't want to speak about as well. "The only difference is whether or not we hide it or try to get help. I mean, you all did a great job trying to make sure I really didn't think I was some sort of an actual king."

The two laughed. Tommy twisted around, watching as his friends slowly pulled themselves out from below deck, their own power packs strapped to them. He nodded to them and stepped towards them.

"We have to remember that," Tanya's voice stopped him. He turned as she stepped towards him. "We have to remember that for our friends out there who are probably wondering if we're ever going to come for them. That we're there for them just as much as they are for us."

Tommy nodded back.

He had no idea how she did it, probably something about the nurturing and community centered culture from Africa, but Tanya managed to bring him back from the edge when he didn't realize he was coming so close to it. But knowing the people he cared about most; Jason, Av, Kimberly…he didn't know what he'd do if something happened to them.

"Guys, Lerigot's signal is getting weaker," Adam stated as they got closer to the rangers. He was looking through a scanner as well. "My zord is the first one up, I can get out of here and drive onto Murianthias and see if there's a signal I can lock onto. Chances are Divatox is already there."

"Good idea, keep in touch alright," Tommy said.

"And be careful!" Tanya added, grasping his arm.

He nodded and raced back below deck to get to the zords. Tommy watched through the slats in the wood planks as he climbed into his zord and sped off through the water. Beside him, Kat tilted her head to the side, watching as Desert Thunder made its way through the ocean towards land. "Good to know these things move through water," She commented.

"Yeah, that was something that Billy suggested we put in there," Bailey said with a proud smile. "There've been enough times where we fought around the water and he thought there was probably going to be a chance there's a water monster we needed o face, yeah?"

"Well tell this Billy guy that he's really smart," Justin piped up. He had been quiet since their near miss of the Nemesis Triangle. Maybe it had scared him to realize that he couldn't jump into everything with as much excitement as he had been showing. Or maybe having heard the story of their ranger journeys the night before had stunned him.

"Trust me," Bailey said with a sad smile. "He already knows."

The rangers watched as Adam finally made it on land and drove up towards the mountain top. Tommy let out a low breath of relief then frowned as his eyes moved back towards the water. Something was moving quickly their way. Something that was long, sort of circular, and heading toward them very, _very_ fast.

"Is that…?" Kat's eyes narrowed and she leaned towards the railing. Then her blue eyes widened and she gasped loudly, leaning back. "Divatox knows we're here for sure. She's sending missiles this way."

"In the water, they're torpedoes," Bailey quickly corrected her.

"We've got to get below deck, into the zords," Tommy said quickly. His heart hammered into his throat. If Divatox was going through this much trouble to get rid of them that meant they were getting very close. "Get out of here as fast as we can." He turned and grabbed onto Justin's shoulder, who suddenly paled.

"Your zord is the next one up, you need to drive out and go the opposite way Adam went," he explained as quickly, calmly as he could. Behind him he could hear the sound of his friends' footsteps as they raced below deck. "I know I'm asking a lot of you but this is what it's like, being a ranger. No matter how old you are they want you to be destroyed."

"But…" Justin's protest died on his lips.

"I'm sorry you have to learn it this fast, like this, but I promise I'm not going to have anything happen to you." Tommy stood up and managed a small smile. "Besides, Rocky would kill me if I let something happen to you."

Finally, Justin nodded. He licked his lips before turning on his heel and raced below deck after the others. Tommy followed him and climbed into Red Lightning. As soon as he buckled up the zord sprang to life and started to shake back and forth, jolting forward every few seconds. He was ready to get his ward out as badly as Tommy wanted to get out. Finally, he watched as Mountain Blaster started to peel out from the creaking and groaning ship. Tommy held his breath as the engine on his zord revved and he started forward.

He couldn't help but think to the torpedoes coming their way. How long until impact? How bad was it going to be? Was that the way they were really going to go out?

As the last thought entered his mind the world blew up in front of him with incredible light. Gritting his teeth, Tommy held tightly onto the steering wheel, waiting for the heat of the flames to consume him and his friends. But the zord continued to move forward and soon he heard the sound of water lapping along the side of his zord. Finally, he opened his eyes to see flames surrounding his zord on the water, chunks of wood falling from the sky, and black smoke snaking and twisting around as it met the air.

Finally he released the breath he was holding onto when he saw that his zord and the others had held up okay. "Looks like we all got through," he finally managed to say.

"Wow, that was so awesome!" Justin's cried, his voice heard through their headsets. Tommy couldn't help but laugh a little bit. It wasn't the most appropriate thing that he had heard after near destruction but at least it was better than knowing one of them got hurt. "Can we do that again?"

"Trust me, you'll have the chance sooner than you think," Bailey pointed out.

"Let's get on land, meet up with Adam," Kat suggested. "He's probably thinking we went along with it. And maybe he's found Lerigot."

"Good idea," Tanya chimed in.

"Take a course, locking onto Desert Thunder's signal," Tommy stated. He pressed the information into the control panel of his zord and they started forward, plowing through the water with little resistance. Finally, the zords made it on land and raced up to where Adam's had become docked.

He blasted through a nearby bush as soon as the zords came to a stop, gasping for air. Tanya and Kat immediately hurried to his side and held him up. "Adam, everything's okay. We're all fine," Tanya reassured him.

He shook his head. "it wasn't that," he gasped. "I saw Lerigot and the others. He doesn't look so good. It's why we couldn't get a lock on him. He has to be dying."

Tommy held his breath. Dying. Just like what had happened to Zordon before. The memory of their mentor and friend lying lifelessly at the bottom of his broken power tube was still too fresh. To lose a new friend, to lose former rangers was too much to bare.

"Oh no," Kat gasped.

"So we're too late?" Justin asked, frowning. All his mirth from the explosion from before was now gone. He looked over at Tommy, as if waiting to see what he would do next. Tommy's gaze then moved over to Bailey, who was looking as intently at him as well.

When he caught her gaze she nodded comfortingly, affirmatively and Tommy felt a new surge of purpose move through his body. Bringing his hand down he grasped onto his communicator then clenched his hand into a fist.

They had work to do.

"We'll have to leave the zords here, go in by ourselves," he finally said to his friends. "Maybe we'll catch them off-guard because we're on foot." He started to take off his power pack and his friends did the same, eagerly anticipating their next move. "Take out your morphers guys, it's time to kick into action. Shift into turbo!"

"Mountain Blaster, Turbo Power!" Justin cried.

"Desert Thunder, Turbo Power!" Adam cried.

"Dune Star, Turbo Power!" Tanya cried.

"Wind Chaser, Turbo Power!" Kat cried.

"Red Lightning, Turbo Power!" Tommy cried.

* * *

Avalon and Kimberly continued to run through the dense jungle foliage, moving as quickly as possible. They weren't headed in any certain direction other than as deep into the jungle as they could make it. There had to be a place where Divatox was going to take them once they arrived on the island. Staying in one place wasn't going to help.

But Kimberly had been right with her suggestion of tapping into their animal spirits. It hadn't been too long since they had their ninja powers and knowing their spirits were still lying in wait was a good sign. With Kimberly's added gracefulness and Avalon's added strength along with their speed they made quick work into the jungle.

"Now if only there was a way I could replicate this for my workouts," Kimberly commented as she came to a stop. She bent over, pressing her hands on her knees. "Maybe call it the Ranger Program or something?"

Avalon came to a stop by her. "You can use the name and no one would know that we're talking about the power rangers," She agreed then held up a finger. "Though with copyright being what it is, there may be some issues." She laughed lightly and turned, bringing a hand up to her forehead to shield out the sun. Her eyes scanned the horizon though there wasn't much to see.

Trees, trees, and more trees.

They had left the ocean behind ages ago.

And she refused to let the worrying thoughts that they were going in the wrong direction infiltrate her mind. Then her eyes landed on a spire that pointed up towards the sky. Reaching out, she gently knocked Kimberly's arm and pointed when she turned. "You think that may be where they're going?"

Kimberly shrugged. "Looks like where I'd bring my sacrifices if I were to bring them to some sort of God," she commented. Then a frown tugged at her lips and she twisted around as if waiting for the trees to part. "I'm starting to get worried. About Jason and Bulk and Skull. We haven't seen them in a long time."

Avalon nodded. She gathered her long, thick hair into a ponytail behind her head and fanned her neck, hoping to beat some of the heat that was boring down on them. She was starting to worry about them, too. It had been hours—judging by the sun's movement—since there was a sign of any of them. And being on a deserted island that the general public didn't know existed didn't help much in terms of thinking of ways to get off it.

She started to say something then stopped, frowning. A chill went down her spine. Everything went quiet. Kimberly started to say something else but Avalon quickly shushed her, bringing her finger to her lips. Kimberly fell silent and watched as Avalon slowly turned her gaze back and forth. It was too quiet.

Not even birds were chirping.

Something was wrong.

Avalon took a few steps towards the bushes that sat directly in front of her. Was she imagining things? Was something really there? She took a few steps forward. She should've seen it coming when Bulk and Skull blasted out through the bushes in front of her, screaming at the top of their lungs. Startled, she jumped backwards, watching them go for a minute then turned back around. The moment she turned around the chill went down her spine once more and she ducked to the ground just as a whistling sound went by.

She looked up in enough time to hear Kimberly's scream of surprise and Bulk's and Skull's screaming intensify within fear and found a jungle warrior in front of her, holding onto a spear. One beside her held onto an empty bow and she quickly concluded it had been an arrow that had been shot at her. Other jungle warriors stood around him, all screaming at the top of their lungs, encircling the group. Avalon quickly flew into action, kicking up her foot and catching the end of the spear and flipped it upwards.

The she brought back her foot and summoning her tiger spirit she slammed it into the ground as hard as she could. The ground erupted and cracked in front of her, knocking the jungle warriors off their feet. Others continued to run forward. Kimberly quickly summoned her crane spirit and with the grace of its namesake started to fight back against the jungle warriors that attacked her. Bulk and Skull seemed to have snapped out of their fear and started to fight back as well. It was clumsy but they were making some progress.

Everything moved around her in a whirlwind as she continued to fight as hard as she could. Every now and then one of the jungle warriors would grab onto her and try to tie her hands together but she would shake loose. Kimberly grabbed onto her arm and used it as leverage to shoot herself through other jungle warriors, knocking them down as they went.

Avalon twisted around and found a spear pointed directly at her heart and she backed away, holding her hands up above her head. Then she turned the other way and found more spears pointed at her. She gritted her teeth punched at the ground. The ground rolled in waves and knocked some jungle warriors off their feet. But then her arms were forced behind her back and a black hood was placed over her head.

Kicking and screaming Avalon tried to wiggle loose but felt herself lifted up before being tied onto a board. Her inner tiger roared and pounced around, scratching and clawing as it tried to break free but soon found itself subdued as well.

"Kim!" Her voice was muffled through her hood as it pressed on all sides of her face. "Bulk! Skull!"

Then she was moving.

She saw flashes of trees and underbrush through very tiny, pinprick holes in her hood. She thought she heard Kimberly saying her name, thought she heard Bulk and Skull shout out. But the hood seemed to block out all sound, too, other than a few grunts and sounds from the jungle warriors that she couldn't understand. Finally, after what seemed like forever, Avalon felt her board being lowered to the ground.

"Well! Let me see!" Divatox's voice barked around them.

Then Avalon felt her hood being ripped off and her eyes slammed shut to block out the sun. Finally, she looked over and found herself looking at Jason. She breathed a sigh of relief. He was okay. His eyes met hers and she could see the relief move over his as well before his eyebrows rose to silently ask; _What about Kim?_

Avalon turned her head to the side, finding Kimberly tied to a board as well, having seemingly given up on her attack. Her hood was taken off and she defiantly glared at everyone around her; Divatox, Elgar, Rygog, Pirranatrons, and Jungle Warrior alike.

Her spirit hadn't been broken.

Avalon then back towards him to let him know she was beside her and she was okay. He nodded back before he was tugged forward by Rygog once more. The black hood was placed over Avalon's head once more and she felt the back board she was lying on lift up and start once more.

Then there was the sound of chanting and the air turned dirty, dusty, and damp. Avalon's arms were yanked above her head and she found them being tied to something seconds before the hood was taken off and she was lifted up into the air. The first thing she did was look around to see where they were and that was only seconds before her gaze shifted to beneath her when she was suddenly lifted off the ground by something pulling her upwards.

A cry of surprise escaped her lips, mixing in with Jason's and Kimberly's as they were lifted up over the mouth in the flow, revealing lava below them.

She took a deep breath, watching as a bead of sweat dripped off her nose and fell into the pit below. The heat was so intense she couldn't see the bead of sweat after a second; it hurt to look at the lava so closely.


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 09**

* * *

Bulk and Skull continued to run through the woods, the jungle warriors hot on their trail. So maybe their plan didn't work so well trying to take the attention away from Kimberly and Avalon. It was worth a shot and the shot failed. Now they ran as fast as they could, pushing the jungle foliage out of their way as they went. And still it was as if nothing was working.

No matter which direction they went they were turned around and went in the next direction, finding spears and other sharp tools pointed directly in their face. They kept running and running, only stopping when they, quite literally, almost ran into colorfully dressed people. Bailey huffed and puffed along behind them a few seconds later. She looked over at Bulk and Skull, trying to catch her breath.

"Bulk…? Skull…?" She managed to gasp. She placed her hands on her knees, continuing to gasp for air before finally standing up straight. "What are you doing here?" Bulk and Skull continued to look over the shiny helmets of the rangers, eyes widening in confusion. Bailey lifted her hand and waved it towards them, though they continued to blink. "Hello?"

"Are they okay?" Tanya asked.

"Something must've happened to them," Tommy explained. He clenched his hand into a fist. "They must've been taken in by Divatox with Jase, Kim, and Av. They're acting even weirder than usual."

"Superheroes that are the color of the rainbow?" Skull muttered to himself. He brought his hand up to his chin and started to rapidly tap it. "Why does that sound so familiar?" Besides him, Bulk continued to look back and forth between them, mouth dropped open and eyes wide. Skull started to smack himself in the forehead. "Come on, man! C'mon! You know this!"

Justin rubbed his helmet. "Uh, are these guys always this weird?"

"You have no idea," Adam said. He slowly turned back and forth, scanning the area. "They must've gotten away somehow if they're all the way out here."

Before they could say anything else, there was crashing through the bushes and Bulk and Skull whirled around, screaming when they saw the jungle warriors burst out of the trees. The rangers immediately flew into action, taking on the jungle warriors, driving them back into the underbrush. That must've struck something with Bulk and Skull as they didn't appear so scared.

"Bulk, Skull, you were with Kim, and Jason, and Avalon," Kat started slowly. "Do you know where they are now?" Bulk nodded and turned, pointing towards the mountain that sat in the distance. Smoke poured out of the top. Kat nodded and turned back to Tommy, grabbing his shoulder. "We've got to get going now." Then she pointed in the direction of the jungle warriors. "Looks like they were trying to get us to follow them."

"Then we don't have much time to waste," Tommy agreed. He thought for a moment. "Let's go!"

The rangers, Bulk, Skull, and Bailey all headed in the direction of the volcano. Along the way there were rustling in the trees, as if the jungle warriors were running along with them. Kat briefly felt they were running into a trap due to them being followed but didn't think much of it. They kept running until the sound of beating drums and chanting reached their ears. Changing direction they followed the sound until they reached a cave entrance. Listening hard, they could clearly hear the sound of chanting as well as Divatox shouting orders left and right.

Smoke poured out of the entrance, adding to the ominous ambiance. Tommy started to say something but Kat cut him off, grabbing onto his wrist. She brought her finger up to the mouthpiece of her helmet, signaling them to be quiet. She listened hard as Divatox started to speak once more. "Maligore, great flame of destruction. It is I, Divatox! Your one and only true soul mate. This moment has been long in coming and now I have three perfect specimens to seal our matrimonial pact. Awake and feed upon their purity, come forth and let evil twist their souls! Be free again and join forces with me!"

It was then Kat realized that the chanting from those inside were statements of the name 'Maligore' over and over again.

"We're too late," She gasped. "They have the others. It sounds like they're already starting the sacrifice!"

"This is it guys," Tommy declared, whispering so they couldn't be heard. "We don't know what they have ready to throw at us but we need to be prepared." He pressed his back against the cave wall. "Go out on my mark, alright?" The rangers nodded and they crept into the long tunnel of the cave opening. Kat followed directly behind them.

As they moved she could see more and more of the room coming into her field of vision. In the middle of the room was a large pit, Avalon, Jason, and Kimberly tied together at the top, feet dangling above the open space below. Around the room were jungle warriors who continued to spin in circles, chanting 'Maligore' continuously. Divatox stood at the side of the pit that held her friends, watching with a grin on her face. Her two henchmen, Rygog, and Elgar flanked her sides, watching in interest. Pirranatrons took up the rest of the room, watching the opening to the cave as well as creating a protective barrier around Divatox.

"On my signal," Tommy whispered to the group. They nodded back, waiting for him to let them charge into the room.

Kat took a deep breath, worry creeping into her chest. She couldn't see the Liarians but knew they had to be in there somewhere. Or else the chase to Muiranthias was a complete waste of time. _Of course,_ she reminded herself. _They used them already and got rid of them._ As soon as the thought crossed her mind, Kat shook her head, scolding herself. She couldn't think that way or else their friends were certainly doomed.

"Go!"

Tommy lurched out f the tunnel with the rest of the rangers, Bulk, Skull, and Bailey right behind them. The wave of heat smacked Kat in the face as she ran inside after him. The first thing she did was take stock of how hot it was, and then she looked around until she found the Liarians, breathing a sigh of relief when she saw they were unharmed. Then her eyes moved to the middle of the floor where Jason and Kimberly, who were the closest to her, both grinned at the arrival of their friends.

Divatox growled, "Who invited you?" upon realizing they were no longer alone.

"No invitations necessary, we just thought we should crash!" Justin declared with a light chuckle.

"Then let's teach them a lesson," Divatox said. She tossed her head towards the Pirranatrons that sat at the wheel connected to the ropes that held Jason, Avalon, and Kimberly up. "Lower them into the volcano!"

Frightful cries escaped the three friends' mouths as they started to become lowered into the fire that awaited them below. They kicked back and forth, doing as much as they could to try and wiggle themselves free.

With that, the fight was on.

Kat launched herself forward to take on the Pirranatron that charged towards her. Out of the corner of her eye she could see the others rangers taking on the Pirranatrons as well, with Justin racing towards the one at the wheel to stop their friends from being taken down. Bulk, Skull, and Bailey fought against the Pirranatrons as well, doing as much damage as they could before the rangers took over to drive them further away.

Ducking her head from a punch that flew towards her, Kat swung her fists and feet in as many combinations of attacks as she knew. The Turbo powers were doing a great job in making them feel powerful; each solid attack that landed knocked them far away before another one came to take its place. But the Pirranatrons were just as powerful, sending Kat to the floor as many times as she did to them. Kimberly's, Jason's, and Avalon's screams reached her ears as they were continuously lowered into the fire below them. When one Pirranatron was moved out of the way, another one came in its place. Kat continued to fight hard but knew she was going to lose steam eventually. Every hit that connected against her took even more time to recover from.

Jason, Kimberly, and Avalon continued to thrash about as they grew closer and closer to the flames waiting below. The more they moved, the hotter they became, Sweat dripped off them like a waterfall, evaporating long before it reached the lava below them.

"Swing to the side," Avalon gasped when, at one point, the wheel was released and they were given a brief reprieve. "Maybe if we swing hard enough we'll be able to make it to the side."

"What if we don't make it?" Kimberly asked.

"We have to try," Jason grunted, shifting once more. All of the blood in his arms was starting to leave him, his arms growing numb. "We can't just sit here and wait for something to happen." With that he picked up his feet and started to kick them, moving their rope back and forth ever so slightly.

Then Avalon and Kimberly joined in, making sure they were moving in one direction. It took a few seconds but soon they were moving cohesively, ever so slowly moving to one side of the lava pit below them. Back and forth they continued to swing. Every now and then fire burst up around them, sending a wave of unbearable heat their way. Avalon glanced upwards, willing to focus on something to take away the burning of her arms, and her blood ran cold. She realized, too late, that the movements of their swing combined with the increasing heat as they were lowered, had rubbed away the rope that held them up.

"Wait!" She cried.

Too late.

The rope snapped and the three started to fall. Avalon, who was at the front of the group as the rope snapped, leapt forwards and used one hand to grab onto the edge of the lava pit. Throwing out her other arm she grabbed onto Jason's wrist, as he grabbed onto Kimberly with his other hand. Avalon's eyes immediately squeezed shut as her arm wrenched from the sudden weight pulling against it. She could already feel Jason's hand slipping form the sweat that covered both of their hands.

"Hang on, Kim!" Jason shouted down towards her. Kimberly nodded back, reaching up with both hands to grab onto his free wrist as she dangled.

"You guys, help!" Kimberly shouted as loudly as she could.

Avalon's eyes closed even tighter. She could feel Jason started to slip even more. Quickly, she pulled her arm upwards, letting go for a second, before grabbing back on again, tightening her grip against Jason's wrist. His hand wrapped on her wrist squeezed so tightly she was afraid her bones would break. But she held on as hard as she could. Her left hand started to slip; she strained the muscles in her fingers to keep her grip on the edge of the lava pit.

"Hang on Avie," Jason said to her. "I know you can do it."

Avalon managed a mixture of a grimace and a smile. "I'm trying."

The rangers were in no position to help out. Tommy, Kat, Tanya, and Justin were being held back by Pirranatrons that managed to outweigh their lasting strength, Adam lay prone on the floor form an attack that gave him a particularly nasty slam to the ground, and Bulk, Skull, and Bailey were trapped in a giant circle by the jungle warriors and Pirranatrons, slowly being pushed back towards the cage that held the Liarians.

"Jase! Kim!" Tommy called, fighting as hard as he could to be let go. When he found that to be fruitless, he reached to his arm in despair, as if able to reach them by want alone. "Av!"

"Let me go!" Tanya shouted, lifting her legs off the ground, trying to get leverage to flip the Pirranatrons over. But they still proved to be too strong and she was knocked to the ground and piled upon.

There was a sudden, low booming sound that came from the lava pit. Two more quickly followed and flames licked over the top of the lava pit. Then there was an explosion so strong that it sent Avalon flying over the lip of the lava pit, kicking and screaming until she landed hard on her back on the ground. Jason and Kimberly, however, were nowhere to be found. That is, until there were two more bursts of flame and they reappeared, once more, on the side of the lava pit. Kat gasped quietly, immediately noticing something was wrong as soon as she saw how still and stiff the two were standing.

Then the turned around, eyes glowing bright red and she knew they were gone and that something more evil had taken their place.

"Kim?" Tommy breathed.

Kat closed her eyes as soon as she heard Tommy's voice. How filled with pain it was. She should've known. No matter how long the two were apart he would always manage to find his way back to her. She knew that since their ninja powers; the ones she had taken on from Kimberly of the crane. The animal spirit wasn't really hers; she never heard it crying out for her or to cheer her on. It must've stuck around with Kim and where the crane went the falcon…

No. Kim was as much her friend as everyone else was. She couldn't let anything bad happen to her.

"Maligore has taken them over!" Divatox screamed with happiness, raising her hands into the air. "His children! Destroy those who threaten the flames of unity!"

The sudden appearance of Kimberly and Jason, after they had fallen into the lava pit, send the Pirranatrons and jungle warriors running. That gave Bailey enough time t race over to Avalon, who continued to lie on the ground where she had fallen, and fall to her knees beside her. "Av! Av, are you okay?!"

Avalon looked up at her sister in a daze for a minute. Bailey held her breath as she watched. Maybe she had been taken over by Maligore from the blast that had sent her flying? Maybe a little bit of him was still inside her? Finally, Avalon closed her eyes and shook her head, then looked at her little sister. "I couldn't help them…" she said, voice betraying her shock and dismay. "I couldn't keep Maligore from getting them."

"Then use this!" Bailey slapped Avalon's Turbo key into her palm. "It could help out a lot. It's a new power source for you lot. The Turbo powers. It's managed to help them this far but they can't stop them if the whole team isn't together!"

Glancing down at the key in her hand, Avalon nodded. She curled her fingers against it and turned towards the chaos that surrounded them. "Shift into Turbo! Wild Fire, Turbo Power!" Avalon morphed into the Turbo Orange Ranger and raced over to her friends just as Jason and Kimberly started to attack.

 _It was no surprise they were rangers before_ , Kat thought as they moved their way through the rangers with ease. _They still have their old fighting skills but now with Maligore helping them it's like they were given even more strength._ Jason and Kimberly made quick work of the rangers, taken them down with accurate ease. One punch from Jason knocked Kat silly. Combined with the two or three blows to her head and she was an open target for a strong kick to the stomach that knocked her onto her back.

The next thing she knew, Kimberly had a hold of her arm and was lifting her up, throwing her across the dusty floor once more. The sounds of fighting raged on around Kat and she could see that Kimberly was targeting her, paying more attention to the pink ranger than the others around her. As Adam tried to knock her away from Kat, Kimberly just lifted her foot and kicked him hard in the chest, sending him flying back. Jason, on the other hand, was focus on Tommy, despite how he and Avalon were both fending him off. The others were continuously being attacked by the Pirranatrons. Also from where she saw, Bulk and Skull went after the Liarians to protect them while Bailey went after Divatox herself, getting stopped by Rygog and Elgar before she got there. Even without powers Bailey was fighting as hard as she could.

With renewed vigor, Kat turned back to Kim and blocked her next attack. For a moment Kimberly looked confused as she stumbled backwards. Then she launched out a direct strike towards Kat's helmet. Kat ducked her head to the side and grabbed onto Kimberly's arm, pinning it over her shoulder. Twisting, Kat lashed out with her outside foot and kicked Kimberly in the back, causing her to stumble once more. But Kimberly recovered and lashed out with her foot, kicking Kat in the chest before following it up with another strike. Kat used her backwards momentum to fall onto her back then roll to her side. She did a judo sweep that knocked Kimberly's feet out from underneath her before she started her attack against her once more.

The two pink rangers became locked in a tight fight. While Kimberly had gymnastics on her side, Kat had the heart of not wanting to see her friends hurt any longer. She sent Kimberly's attacks back against her, strong punches and kicks, throws, rolls, ducks, and dives. The girls continued to revolve around each other as they fought long and hard. The only thing that stopped them for a moment, the only thing that caught their attention was the sound of Tommy's cry for help.

Kat immediately turned and watched as Jason managed to corner Tommy against the lava pit and was slowly pressing down on his neck, trying to force him into the lava below with Divatox cheering him on. Kat's eyes widened and she gasped. Then she stopped, realizing she wasn't the only one that had made the sound and looked at Kimberly. Her eyes still glowed red but her face had an expression of intense concern and confusion on it. As if she felt something for Tommy but didn't know why.

Then it was gone, her face darkening and she turned back to Kat, kicking her in the face at the most opportune moment. Kat closed her eyes as she heard a cracking sound and opened them to see a section of the protective glass over her eyes had broken free.

Kimberly stood over her and grabbed onto her arm, forcing her back to her feet. Her eyes roved over Kat's suit, barely concealing her disgust. "Hasn't anyone told you that pink is out?" She asked.

"I guess I must've missed that memo," Kat replied.

Then the two were back into their fight. With the space around her eyes gone it gave Kat a bit of a disadvantage. Her attention straining to focus on what was in front of her rather than the different shades of color in front of her. Kimberly continued to attack as hard as she could before she mistimed a punch and received a kick to the chest that sent her flying towards the cage the Liarians were huddled in, with Bulk and Skull protecting them.

The police officers grabbed Kimberly by the arms and hoisted her up as she thrashed, practically foaming at the mouth to get out of their grasp. Then Lerigot and his wife lifted their hands, a bright light coming from them that surrounding Kimberly. Kimberly went limp as the light continued to surround her, growing in luminosity. Kat took a few steps back, watching as the light faded and Lerigot, exhausted from the energy output, laid his head against Yara's chest and closed his eyes.

Kimberly's eyes then opened and they were back to its usual brown color. She gasped and looked around before her eyes locked onto Kat's. "Kat? What…?"

"No time to explain Kim, we have to help Tommy!" Kat declared. With that she and Kimberly hurried over to Tommy just as he managed to overpower Jason and flip him towards the lava pit. Tommy grasped Jason's arm at the last second, with Kat and Kimberly coming on his other sides to aide him in pulling their friend back up.

But then there was another burst of fire energy and the group was flung backwards once more. They watched in horror as a lava-like creature slowly rose up from the lava pit. Jason appeared stunned from his fall and Lerigot used that moment to revert him back to normal as well.

Divatox giggled in excitement, wiggling towards the lava pit. "Maligore! My husband!" She cried. "Come to me, unite our powers as one!"

"This…doesn't look good," Tanya said as she and the rangers took a few steps back.

Maligore lifted himself to his full height, red eyes glowing with hell-fire, a dragon-like roar coming from his mouth as he took stock of everyone in the room. The jungle warriors started to run in circles before kneeling down in front of the lava pit, raising and lowering their arms in prayer.

"And she wants to marry this thing?" Adam asked, watching as Maligore continued to take steps towards them.

"I'd hate to see what their children look like, yeah?" Avalon added.

"Uh…" Justin took a timid step backwards. "I think it's time to bring out the hardware!"

"Good call, Justin," Tommy said. He looked at his friends and clenched his fingers into a fist. "Let's do it! Turbo Lightning Sword!" Tommy summoned his sword, slashing it through the air.

"Turbo Hand Blasters!" Justin called, summoning his blue blasters.

"Turbo Star Chargers!" Tanya called, summoning her handheld blasters.

"Turbo Thunder Canon!" Adam called, summoning his two handed cannon.

"Turbo Wind Fire!" Kat called, summoning her bow.

"Turbo Wild Hammer!" Avalon called, summoning her war hammer.

"Fire!" Tommy cried, causing the rangers to start shooting off their weapons. Maligore continued to get hit with each and every blast but he didn't blink. He continued to walk towards them. "Let's get out to the zords; we can take care of him then!"

"You got it, bro!" Avalon declared.

Kat nodded in agreement. "We'll have to move fast!"

"We'll get the Liarians," Kimberly said, motioning to herself and Jason. "And we'll get Bailey, Bulk, and Skull out of here, too."

"Alright, sounds good," Kat agreed. She motioned to Tommy. "Let's give them some cover to get them over there before we go. Looks like they'll need it."

"Good idea, Kat!" Justin declared. He was the first one to race up to Maligore, using his Turbo Hand Blasters as a shield, but Maligore knocked them away and struck him against the chest.

The rangers followed suit; with their Turbo weapons held high they attacked Maligore. Just like the blasts from the weapons, their attacks had little damage to Maligore but it worked in giving Jason and Kimberly time to run across the space of sacrifice before they headed outside. Just as they thought, Maligore followed right after them.

Once they made it outside, Maligore blew a wave of fire towards the rangers; the energy from the blow knocked the rangers to the ground. They turned just in time for Maligore to slowly walk their way.

They were trapped.


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10**

* * *

Avalon pulled her hair back into a ponytail then fastened it with a large orange bow. She looked at her reflection then frowned, turning this way and that before taking the bow back out of her hair once more. She tossed it aside then lowered her hair around her face again.

Not that she actually cared so much what her hair looked like, but she was doing her best to ignore the fact that Jason and Emily were loudly arguing only a few rooms over. Not that she didn't blame Emily, having your boyfriend suddenly disappear for days at a time without being able to explain why was enough or rattle anyone. But that was something they had to take into consideration when agreeing to become a power ranger in the first place; there were many times they'd wanted to tell their friends and family—before their parents were able to figure it out—but the secret was a secret for a reason.

 _Not that you're one to talk,_ Avalon reminded herself. _You're the one that had more people find out than anyone else. If your life was a TV show, it'd be a bloody running gag for you._

Nevertheless she knew Jason had to be having a harder time. He wasn't a ranger anymore and he had every opportunity to tell Emily about it, but still chose not to. Not only would it cause the others to have their identities revealed, but it would open up another Pandora's box of issues. Jason was always a bit of an enigma to Avalon but she could admit he was very steadfast in his beliefs when he thought he was doing the right thing. And he certainly did think it was a good idea not to mention to Emily that he had turned evil.

A light sigh escaped Avalon's lips as she thought about what had happened with Maligore and how he was still around to wreak havoc when he felt it was his time to come back. A shiver went down her spine as she thought about his immense power.

She and her friends had summoned their new Turbo weapons to take down Maligore as soon as he came out of the lava pit she, Kimberly, and Jason had been dangled above. But every attack they put on him did nothing. Their colorful blasts hit him across the face and neck and still he walked towards the rangers.

Tommy had lowered his Turbo Lightning Sword and let out a low breath when he saw Maligore continuing to walk towards them. There was nothing left for them to do but leave the volcano, giving themselves more space to fight. "Let's get out to the zords; we can take care of him then!"

"You got it, bro!" Avalon replied. Still there was a nagging thought in the back of her head that it wasn't going to make much of a difference. Her eyes shifted around the volcano, watching as Divatox and her team of henchmen scurried away, as Kimberly and Jason raced off to find Bailey, Bulk, Skull, and the Liarians. It didn't seem like Maligore thought they were any threat at all.

"Let's give them some cover to get them ou before we go. Looks like they'll need it," Kat said.

"Good idea, Kat!" Justin declared.

And before the rest of the rangers could stop him, he raced towards Maligore, using his Turbo Hand Blasters as a shield. He managed to get in a few solid hits, but Maligore was faster. He knocked Justin out of the way and raked a claw across the front of his suit. Sparks flew off of Justin's chest as he cried out in pain, stumbling backwards. The morphing grid had been compromised; along with the sparks Avalon and her friends could see little wisps of blue, showing that some power had been released form his suit.

They had all seen it happen before when fighting against Goldar and Rito and the other henchmen that Rita and Zedd threw their way. But they didn't have Maligore's blinding speed. Watching Justin fall, Avalon clenched her teeth and ran after her fallen teammate, aware that Tommy, Kat, Adam, and Tanya were right behind her.

One by one she and her friends were knocked down by Maligore; Tommy was first, striking with his sword, then it was Kat, Tanya, Adam, and Avalon. But Adam was hit the hardest, a combination of his Turbo Thunder Canon being knocked aside and struck in the chest at the same time caused him to twist and turn through the air, landing hard on his back. Avalon rolled onto her side, wincing in pain; her legs wouldn't move, there was a loud humming in her ears, and her mouth tasted like pennies.

She had never been hit so hard in her life. Even watching the sparks and orange bursts come flying from her chest was hard to watch. They had just gotten those powers and for Maligore to damage them like that so easily was jarring. Climbing back to her feet, Avalon grabbed onto Adam's arm and tried to lift him up, watching as Maligore whipped around to face them once more.

"Adam!" Tanya fell to the Green Turbo Ranger's other side and grasped his hand. "Adam, are you okay?"

"Yeah," Adam finally managed to groan. His voice was low and wheezy, movements slow. His arms and legs moved as if he were underwater.

"Looks like this bloke is going to be harder than we thought," Avalon remarked, holding up her war hammer in front of her as she continued to kneel by Adam's side. Tommy, Justin, and Kat blocked the three as Maligore turned their way, growling a deep, guttural growl.

"You're telling me," Tommy agreed.

Adam finally managed to pull himself up off the ground, leaning heavily on Tanya. He shook his head. Before the rangers could move to attack once more Maligore took in a deep breath and blew out hard, a stream of fire shooting in front of them. Avalon brought her hand up to shield her face from the bright glare, but found the intense heat to be unbearable. The rangers backed away from Maligore as the fire ended and he continued to growl towards them, eyes narrowing.

"Let's get out of here before he decides he wants a ranger spit roast!" Justin declared. Tommy nodded and with his leader's agreement, the rangers raced towards Maligore once more, using their weapons to deflect his attention before racing outside. Just as they thought, Maligore followed right after them.

As soon as they made it outside of the crumbling volcano, Maligore blew a wave of fire towards the rangers; the energy knocking them to the ground. They flipped around to find Maligore nearly on top of them, burning the foliage around him as he passed it.

"We've got to stop him or else this whole island will go up in flames," Tanya declared, tightening her grasp around Adam's waist.

"We've got to get to the zords," Tommy declared. "Follow me!" And with that the Turbo rangers started racing through the forest, not looking over their shoulders as they went. They ran and ran until a sudden burst of heat, just as they reached their zords, knocked them over once more.

Avalon rolled onto her back and her eyes widened as she tilted her head back to look up towards the sky. Maligore had suddenly increased in size so that he towered over them. He opened his mouth and screeched in a way that sounded like a Tyrannosaurus Rex, causing the rangers to clap their hands over their ears.

"Do you think these guys will ever grow smaller instead of taller?" Kat asked, voice quivering slightly.

"What sort of damage would that do?" Justin legitimately asked.

"It'd make our lives easier," Adam said. He placed his hand on his chest and turned to Tommy, nodding. "I think now's the time to strike up the zords."

"I think you're right." Tommy led the charge of the rangers to climb into the driver's seat of their zords. As Avalon climbed inside, she stretched out her feet to touch the pedals then looked up. She sighed heavily, noticing that she couldn't see out the front window. She raised the seat then sat back down once more, starting up the zord.

It roared to life under her hands and she started to smile, filled with renewed vigor.

"Let's see what this baby's got!" Tommy declared. "Read to bring them together!"

"Ready!" His teammates agreed.

"Turbo Megazord Morph sequence online!" Tommy declared.

Their zords moved as if they had a mind of their own, coming together to create the Turbo Megazord. Avalon held onto her seat as it slowly moved itself from her cockpit, and joined the other rangers into the cockpit of the Tubro Megazord with Tommy, as always, at the helm. Once all of the zords were docked, they turned to their attention to their own controls, ready to face on Maligore.

The battle had been a tough one; tougher than any of the other fights they had. No matter how many times they had the upper hand, Maligore took it back without a struggle. A punch to Maligore's face was quickly return with a punch to the ace of their zord. He used his fire breath, and sharp claws to bring out even more damage. At one point he shot a stream of fire from his hands that immediately incinerated the foliage around them before the flames started to wrap up their legs. Due to the flames, the Turbo Megazord started to slow down its movements. Their engines started to overhead, sparks flying around inside the cockpit as the internal temperature rapidly started to climb.

"We've got to get out of this," Avalon cried, sweat already starting to drip down her forehead. "Or our circuits will be fried, literally." As soon as the words came out of her mouth Maligore raced forward and crashed into the front of their megazord, causing it to go stumbling backwards before falling to the ground. Avalon was flung to the side, losing her grip on her controls.

Around her, she could hear her friends all crying out in pain as they were flung around as well. Maligore took a few thundering steps backwards, giving the rangers space to get up once more. Once back on their feet they summoned a sword and shield to fight against Maligore once more. Then the fight was back on. Their sword struck Maligore across the face and back as he continued to strike back, using as much of his power against them, making the Turbo Megazord to continue to back up.

Finally, the rangers had had enough. "Mega Turbo Jets, now!" Tommy declared. Jets appeared on the back of the Mega Turbozord causing them to increase in speed as they hurried towards Maligore. "Turbo Jets, full power!" They reached their top speed and the Turbo Megazord brought up their sword. "Later, flame face!"

The sword slashed along Maligore's front, causing him to scream out in pain. The force of the sword strike combined with the speed behind it knocked Maligore backwards. There were a few fiery blasts that erupted from Maligore's body before there was a bigger explosion that engulfed him.

When it disappeared Maligore was gone.

The rangers quickly found their friends and left the island. All of that had concluded the night before and even though they were all trying to move on with their lives, to go back to being 'normal' there was the sad truth that nothing was ever going to be normal for them. And trying to have that while sharing a life with someone who knew nothing of how abnormal life could be.

"You're acting like I'm doing all of this on purpose, Em," Jason said and even from where she was Avalon could hear the frustration in his voice.

"Didn't you?" Emily shot back.

"No!"

"Because all I know is that you came back from your trip to Vietnam, you said you were going to go scuba diving, and then you don't come back for three days. _Three days,_ Jason! I called everyone I knew to know if they've heard from you and nothing."

"I understand, Em. And I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. But there was just something I had to do."

"And you can't tell me what it was?"

There was a long pause and Avalon closed her eyes. Surprisingly, she knew how Emily felt. Trying to get into contact with someone and not hearing anything back was more hurtful than anything else. Because there were so many unanswered questions that probably would never be answered. It was easier to have someone say they didn't want to talk to you anymore.

This was something Jason had the option to tell her, he wasn't a ranger anymore. But who was anyone kidding? Even if he was told by Zordon he could talk about it, he still wouldn't. Taking advantage of the silence, Avalon opened the door to her room and pulled her backpack up over her shoulder. She slowly, carefully, and quietly tried to inch her way down the hall to make it to the front door of the apartment to leave.

Jason had been nice enough to offer her to stay there while trying to surprise the others but she wasn't going to stay a minute longer. It was bad enough when she listened to her parents—Ellie and Captain Mitchell—argue, the last thing she needed was to be caught in someone else's intimate moment.

She made it as far as the hallways before she knew she had been dragged into the conversation. "Because it has something to do with her, right?"

Closing her eyes, Avalon turned on the spot and found Jason and Emily standing by the bed in their room. Emily's blue eyes were trained on her in a glare. Behind her, Jason crossed his arms over his chest, hanging his head as if he were completely done with the conversation. Honestly, she didn't blame Emily for that leap, the girls hadn't really gotten along with each other since meeting.

Jason immediately knew there was something up with her and the company she kept with Eddie and the rest of his biker gang. And along with becoming infatuated with her at first sight, Jason was immediately worried in case she was starting to get in over her head with things the biker gang could've been doing. So he asked Avalon to do some research on her to make sure she hadn't fallen into the same sort of gang trouble that Avalon had before. Being a good friend Avalon agreed to do it, though part of her was glad to do it knowing she was helping someone else stay out of that lifestyle, and Emily had come up clean.

However, Emily had been suspicious of Avalon since then, unsure of how to deal with her closed off-nature to someone new compared to the rest of her friends. It was bound to come back to haunt them at some point. Honestly, Avalon was surprised it took this long.

"If it had anything to do with me it'd have to do with Kim too," Avalon said flatly. "Considering she went scuba diving with us."

Jason gave Avalon an annoyed 'thanks a lot' look as Emily bristled and turned back to him. "Are you cheating on me?" She demanded.

"No! I'm not cheating on you, Em! I love you, you know that. There was just something I had to take care of. Av and Kim knew absolutely nothing about it. It's a personal thing." He brought his hands up and ran it through his hair. "You know if it was something I could tell you I would, but it's really personal."

"And if you trusted me at all you would," Emily replied. "Instead of treating me like some kind of criminal." She threw her blonde hair over her shoulders, crossing her arms over her sleeveless orange shirt. Reaching out, Jason placed his hands on Emily's cheeks. She tried to move away from him but he held a good grasp on her. "Don't touch me."

"Em…" Jason placed his forehead against hers, forcing her to look him in the eye. "I promise you… _promise_ you…that I will tell you what happened when I can. But even I don't know when that'll be. When we first started dating I told you there were some things about my life that I couldn't tell anyone because I don't even know how to handle them…and this is one of those times. I trust you more than any other people I've let into my life. Just like I'm sure there are some things that you haven't told me."

Emily lowered her gaze to the ground.

"But you have to trust me, okay? I'm not cheating on you. I have no intentions to. I love you." He placed a gentle kiss to her forehead then looked her in the eye once more. Emily looked back at him then nodded, ducking her head away from him. "Do you want to go to the competition?"

Emily nodded quietly.

Avalon took the time to leave the hallway, glad the attention was taken off her. She felt bad for Emily. It was hard for anyone to be on the outside looking in on the ranger's friendship. She knew Bailey had felt the same way before she had turned into a ranger herself. Not only did Avalon spend a lot of time with the rangers due to their duties and her learning curve. For a while Bailey felt left out.

This had to be ten times worse.

As Avalon walked out towards the living room, she pulled her phone from her pocket, looking at the text she had loaded up on her phone as she went. She had written it when they had arrived back from Muiranthias but hadn't figured out if she should send it.

**Hey Billy, it's Av. Just wanted o say you and Bailey did a great job on the Turbo powers. It really came in handy. Hope all is going well with you. Xx**

Hovering her thumb over the send button Avalon went back and forth for a few minutes before sending it. Then she turned off her phone and put it away. There was no need to torture herself with it, jumping at every slight movement her phone made afterwards.

She wasn't that desperate.

* * *

Avalon squeezed herself down the crowded steps of the Angel Grove Arena, looking for her seat along with her friends. She heard her name being called and looked over as Kimberly stood up, waving her arms to catch her attention. Chuckling, Avalon went down to her seat and gave Kimberly a hug before sitting down.

"Looks like you're trying to flag down a plane, yeah?" Avalon teased as she sat down.

Kimberly gently swatted her leg. "I just wanted to be sure that we all had good seats for this. It's a really big fight you know."

"I know," Avalon replied. She crossed her leg at the knee and looked around the arena. She could see Tommy, Jason, and Adam getting ready on the sides of the ring that was to be used for their fight against the Stone Canyon team for the prize money to keep the shelter open. Down the aisle from her, Emily, Tanya, Bailey, Kat, Justin, Bulk, Skull were sitting patiently as well.

Justin was practically bouncing up and down in his seat as he waited for the competition to start.

Avalon smiled as she watched him. Even Bailey looked like she was about to burst at the seams from her excitement as well. It was going to be hard to see someone else on the team but at least Justin wasn't afraid to take on the new responsibilities held of him. Though it was a bit worrying that he was able to face Maligore with a bright smile and excitement. She hoped he didn't have his excitement pummeled too soon.

Real life didn't have to take away his youth so quickly.

The competition started and Avalon leaned forward, watching as her friends started to fight against the other team. They were just as good as ever, even with having fought against a fire monster the day before. Then Avalon felt a hand on her shoulder and looked over to see Rocky sliding into the aisle seat beside her.

"Rocky!" She cried. She reached out to give him a hug then backed up, remembering what the others had told her. Rocky had been in an accident and had really hurt his back. But he was supposed to be in the hospital wasn't he? "Don't tell me that the hospital food was so bad you left."

A light laugh escaped Rocky's lips. "Firstly, it's okay you can give me a hug." Avalon smiled and leaned in, giving him a tight, yet gentle hug. "And the food was pretty bad, but it wasn't enough to get me out of there." He leaned over and greeted the rest of his friends, who were just as happy to see him. Questions were flung his way and he quickly tried to respond to all of them. "I'm still going to get surgery but it's not for another couple of weeks. But I'm okay enough to be able to go home for a while."

"What else did the doctor say?" Kat asked? Her blonde brows were crinkled in worry.

"To take it easy, I can't lift weights for a while. And that's before the surgery. After…" he shook his head. "I won't know until it's done."

"So that means…" Kimberly started to lower her voice but found she could speak at a normal volume when the audience around them started to cheer. Avalon turned her attention back to the fight in front of them. It was starting to get really good. The teams were more evenly matched than she thought it would be. "You can't be a ranger anymore?"

Rocky shrugged.

He turned back to the fight in front of him, really getting into it, just as he always did when he was watching a fight or participating in one. Rocky shifted back and forth, clenching and unclenching his fists. Each tiny movement had to bring him some more pain, but he didn't show it. In true Rocky fashion he faced everything with a bright smile.

Even the stark reality that he may not be a ranger again.

Even the reality that his surgery may not work out.

Even the reality that he would eventually drift from all of his friends as he was no longer with them on the battlefield.

The fight continued on with Tommy, Adam, and Jason working well together as a team and individually. Avalon sat back in her seat and smiled as she watched. It was then that she realized how it was a point for everyone to move on in some way. They weren't going to be able to do this for the rest of her life and she needed to stop being selfish about trying to keep everything around her the same.

After a good point, Rocky sat back down in his seat. Avalon reached over and looped her arm through his. "Have I ever told you that I love how you can face everything with a smile?" Rocky looked at her. "I can understand how Justin looks up to you so much, yeah?" she added, looking over at the Blue Turbo Ranger, who was on his feet, cheering loudly.

Rocky smiled back. Then his smile faded, understanding what it was that Avalon was saying.

She was going to miss him.

"When I first heard that there was going to be someone to take my place, I didn't think of Justin," Rocky said slowly. "I thought I could get better then go back to the team. If anything I thought it was a bit of a coincidence that Justin found out about our powers. Then Zordon and Alpha got in contact with me…" Rocky chuckled. "I would've thought that Bulk or Skull would be the next ranger before this happened. But the more I thought about it the more I knew it made sense. I just worry about him, you know?"

"I understand." She understood completely.

"He's really young and so full of life, I don't know how much of this he can handle."

"Well," Avalon said after a second. "Only one way to find out."

Rocky smiled.

She smiled back.

* * *

"So that means that for a while I'm not going to be able to be a ranger," Rocky explained as the team later sat in the Power Chamber.

He clasped his hands together, looking over the faces of his friends. Tommy, Adam, and Jason stood with their hands on their hips, sweating, still trying to catch their breath after having finished and won their competition. Kimberly, Kat, Tanya, Justin, Bailey, and Avalon all stood around them as well, listening in dismay as Rocky explained his plight.

"Maybe never again." He smiled a little when he saw the now forlorn expressions that immediately came after his announcement. "No, guys ,don't be sad for me. I did everything I could before this happened…and you have Justin now. I know he's going to do a great job as the newest ranger and I'll always be around to help you when you need it."

"We're just going to miss you, man, "Adam said, resting his hand on his best friend's shoulder. "It won't be the same without you here."

"I know," Rocky agreed. "But we've been through a lot tougher than this. Team changes and lots of other things." He looked each of his friends in the eye. "I wouldn't give any of this up for the whole world."

"Not even for a good sandwhich?" Bailey teased, causing everyone to laugh.

"Not even that," he agreed. "But I know when my time is up."

"And we all know Justin can take his place," Kimberly said helpfully. She looked to Kat for agreement and the Pink Turbo Ranger smiled and nodded, putting her arm around Justin's shoulder as she said, "He's going to make a great Power Ranger."

"I know he'll learn a lot with you guys, and you'll look out for him," Rocky agreed.

"Rocky, you have demonstrated great compassion for your own plight as well as for your friends," Zordon's voice boomed around the Power Chamber, taking their attention. "With that I applaud you."

"Thank you, Zordon," Rocky said. He slid his hands into his jeans pockets. "And hey, just because I'm not going to be in the suit doesn't mean I won't be around to help you when you need me."

"Ay yi yi, we're going to miss you, Rocky," Alpha said.

Rocky smiled. "I'll miss you guys, too."

Zordon then turned his attention to Justin, who seemed to shrink a little under the new, direct gaze. "Justin, your bravery and courage in saving your friends and your city, all under extraordinary circumstances gives us the confidence that you'll be a great addition to this team."

For once Justin was speechless as he nodded back to Zordon, reaching down to touch the communicator on his wrist.

"Rangers, we are uncertain that Maligore was defeated as well as Divatox having gotten away. It won't be long until she comes back again. Justin, you must listen to your fellow rangers while serving as the Blue Turbo Ranger. As they guide you in the use of your new powers; they will teach you well. Rocky, we can't thank you enough for everything you've done as a Power Ranger."

Rocky nodded.

"With this, Justin, welcome to the Power Ranger team. May the Power protect you."

Avalon smiled and waited for her turn to congratulate Justin for making the team. It was a far change from the way she used to act; she hated the fact that Rocky, Adam, and Aisha had taken over Jason, Zack, and Trini's places and made it well known. She didn't trust them at all. It took a long time for her to open up to them.

But things changed and people moved on. Nothing could ever be the same as it used to be. And she was okay with that.

It was hard, but she was going to be okay.


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11**

**Evie belongs to MsStrange-Imagination.**

* * *

"Hard to think this is going to be one of the last times we walk these halls," Adam commented, slinging his backpack over his shoulder. A wistful sigh escaped his lips. "I know graduation is a very important thing but it's still weird." He ran a hand through his shoulder length hair, turning to straddle the bench as he and his friends gathered for lunch.

"Well, we need to do something to celebrate," Tanya said. She smiled, a sad smile, resting her hand sin her lap. "It's going to be one of the last times we walk these halls, but it's also one of the last times we'll be together before we go off to do our own thing."

Adam, Tanya, Tommy, Kat, and Avalon all fell silent as they thought about it. They only had a few weeks left of high school, college applications already went out and admissions came in, and they were continuously figuring out what it was they were going to do. Adam was definitely going to college; sticking around at Angel Grove University to study business, Tanya was going to work on her music career; going to LA to work on a recording studio, Kat was going to London to join the ballet theatre there, Tommy was going to work with his uncle to race cars, and Avalon wasn't entirely sure what she wanted to do.

She knew where she would be in a few months, but not exactly what she would be doing. That was okay; she still had plenty of time to figure it out. As it was, she still had to tell her friends her news. It would shock them for sure, but they'd be happy all the same, if not a little confused.

"Speaking of which, where's Jason?" Kat asked, tucking into her burger and fries. "I thought he was going to eat with us."

"He has to stop by the guidance counselor's office first," Tommy explained. "He should be here any minute."

"Well, let's at least come up with an idea before he gets here," Avalon suggested. She rested her chin in her upraised palm. "What do we want to do to celebrate graduation? Maybe we could go on a trip somewhere."

"Just as long as it's not back up to the mountains," Kat said, her voice softening. The others nodded the image of Evie Caldwell fresh in their minds. It hadn't been long since that battle with the monsters and the Machine Empire.

Actually, time flew by since then as well. The next thing the rangers knew they were fighting against Maligore and Divatox while trying to save Kimberly, Jason, and Avalon from their clutches. Now the rangers were consistently battling Pirranatrons and other monsters Divatox sent their way while trying to track down Maligore. Kimberly had stayed for a little bit after the tournament before going back to Florida, and Rocky had his surgery, of which he was still recovering from back at his house.

"Well, whatever it is we do, it needs to be safe for Rocky so he can come," Adam pointed out. He rubbed his hands together. "What if we went camping?"

"Camping?" Tanya repeated. She started to say something else but stopped, looking up when she saw Shawn pointedly walk by their table; speaking loudly and joking with his friends, but keeping his eyes on Tanya the whole while. Tanya locked eyes with him and shook her head before pointedly looking away. "I don't know, that doesn't sound really safe."

"He said as long as he uses a back brace things will be okay. He just can't lift anything heavier than five pounds and he can't bend over too far," Adam explained. "So we can just strap him to a hammock and make sure he doesn't move."

The group of friends laughed as Jason arrived at the table. He dropped his backpack to the ground and slid his tray onto the table. "What's up?" He asked, slapping his palm against Tommy's. "It looked like I just interrupted a really serious moment."

"Nothing more serious than trying to figure out where we want to go to celebrate graduation," Kat said with a sweet smile. "I bet you're just as excited as the rest of us."

"Oh yeah, I was just meeting with the guidance counselor to talk about it," Jason said. He started to dig into his food as well. "There's a lot of options of me, but I think I'm going to take a year off before going to college. Just to have some time with family, just to have a little bit of time off before jumping into something new, you know?"

"If that's what you want to do, then do it, man," Tommy said.

"Yeah, do you think he'd be working to race cars if he was going to college?" Tanya teased him.

"I _am_ eventually going to go. I just don't want to go in and potentially waste the money when I don't know what I would be doing." Tommy shrugged, pushing his ponytail over his shoulder. "So I thought I'd make sure I knew what I wanted before doing it. And at the moment, racing cars is what I want to do."

"Do you think you'll go into the business with him?" Avalon asked. She shifted in her seat, pulling her knee up to rest her arm against it. "Like, racing the cars, helping fix them, going to give them to others who are racing?"

"I don't know. I still need to talk to mom and dad about it. As you can imagine, they weren't very excited to know that I wasn't going to be going to college right now." Tommy chuckled. "Even Bay looked at me like I was crazy."

Avalon waved her hand. "You know Bay; she's always enjoyed learning and academics. She can't really seem to fathom that many people aren't into it, yeah?" She looked at Jason out of the corner of her eye as he said, "Well, it must be something that runs in the family then."

"What do you mean, Jason?" Adam asked.

"When I was in the office, the guidance counselor mentioned something that I thought was really interesting," Jason said. He paused, to mount the growing drama. Avalon wanted to knock him out. "He said that Billy wasn't the only one out of our group who graduated early."

Avalon let out a little huff as all eyes turned to her. She ran a hand through her hair and said, "I kinda…already…graduated," she said slowly. Excited and surprised cries surrounded her and Avalon smiled sheepishly. "When I was back visiting my mum I was finishing up some classes there, because I had actually moved. And from the credits I managed to get from Angel Grove I was ready to graduate."

"So what are you doing here?" Kat asked.

"I wanted to walk with my mates. And Principal Kaplan said that if I finished up some of the other classes here it'd be good to get some extra credits before I go to uni." Avalon reached out and shoved Jason on the shoulder. "Which would've been a surprise if _someone_ didn't open their big mouth."

Jason laughed, easily absorbing the blow. "I'm sorry, Avie, I couldn't resist."

"It's a good thing he didn't! We're all so happy for you, Av!" Tanya declared.

Avalon smiled back. It wasn't that she wasn't excited for the news, that she wasn't happy her friends were happy for her. That wasn't it at all. She was a little upset because she had told Billy ages ago and…he hadn't said anything in response. As it was, she hadn't said anything in response to her texts about the Turbo powers helping out the rangers, or asking about the Peace Conference. Phone calls went unanswered as well.

She knew they had broken up but he had said they'd at least still be friends and that she could call him whenever. Was he telling the truth and was just too busy? Or was he leaving everything in Angel Grove behind?

"Thanks," Avalon replied.

Rather than focusing on the downside of things Avalon smiled and joined the conversation about going camping. There was only a few weeks left until graduation, then they would go camping, and then they'd have the summer to get ready to say goodbye to each other.

There was still plenty of time to figure out what they would all be doing and where they go. And the biggest thing hovering over their heads was what their futures as rangers were. Avalon had been ready to move on before Divatox came back around and now with Maligore still out there they couldn't leave anytime soon.

They had to make that decision soon and hopefully in enough time to stop Divatox from taking over the world. They had stopped monsters before, they could stop them again.

* * *

Rocky looked over at the sound of a knock on the door. He slowly sat up on the couch, bracing his hands behind him to get up. Then he thought better of it, his back became ablaze with a burning pain and he knew if he moved even an inch further, it would probably delay his progress. So, instead, he sat back and called out, "Come in!"

And with that, his living room was then filled with his friends as they all gathered around him. "Hey, you guys!" He greeted them. "What's up?"

"We were going to ask you the same thing," Kat said, sitting next to him. "How's your recovery going?"

Rocky shrugged. "It's going alright," he replied. "I didn't think things would be this painful." He managed a smile. "Would you believe that I haven't been able to eat as much as I used to?" He laughed along with his friends. "I'm being serious. I haven't been able to get up off his couch and trust me when I saw with as much spices mom puts into her food, that's not a good thing."

"Are you saying that you don't want any of your mum's cooking?" Avalon teased.

"I'm saying that I wouldn't be too hard pressed to get a burger from the Youth Center." Rocky nodded towards the magazines that were resting by his feet on the couch. "But as you can see, there's not much that I can do without hurting myself even further. It even hurts to breathe."

"Well, you did only just have your surgery," Tanya reminded him.

"Yeah…" Rocky reached up and scratched the back of his head. He hadn't thought there would be so much to getting a surgery. But as time went on it became more and more obvious his life wasn't going to be the same. He had to stop his ranger tenure to make sure everything was okay. Now that he didn't have that anymore he had time to think, too much time to think, honestly. His thoughts continued to get darker as the days went on.

Wondering what it was that everyone was doing without him, waiting for Aisha to call when she got the chance, wondering what he was going to do now that he had to finish up school work and try to graduate on time. Wondering what he was going to do afterwards. His mother was trying to get him to work with his father but Rocky still couldn't look him in the eye, couldn't stay comfortable with him around. It was going to be an adjusting period and throwing a back surgery on top of that just made it worse.

Absentmindedly, Rocky started to bring his fingertips along his wrist, where old and new scars lined them. Tanya noticed his hand movement and reached out, grabbing onto him. She turned her wrist over and looked at the fresh scars.

"Oh, Rocky," She breathed.

Rocky lifted his gaze and looked at his friends, seeing the sorrow on all of his friends' faces. "Don't worry guys. I'm talking to someone; I'm going to get through this. It's just…it's a hard adjustment going from the top of the world with all of this power to being…normal again."

Jason smiled. "Hey, take it from me. You get used to it, you'll find ways to help that are different from being right in battle." Then he grew solemn for a second. "Then you'll realize that what you were able to do to help at the time is what's the most important. Don't dwell on what it is that you _could_ be doing if things were the same. Just think about your recovery."

"I think I've done enough of that," Rocky said. He rubbed his forehead. "It's all I think about."

"Well, we've got something that might cheer you up," Tommy said.

Rocky's eyebrows rose curiously.

"Yeah, we were thinking that because graduation is coming up we could do something to celebrate. All of us." Adam motioned to himself and his friends. "Bailey and Justin, too. We're all thinking we can go camping. Get some time away from the city, from school, from all of our responsibilities and just hang out."

"Camping, huh? I love camping! When were you thinking of going?"

"Right after graduation," Tommy said.

"So in 'Tommy-Time' that means the day after, right?" Kat teased, causing Tommy to roll his eyes. Rocky grinned as he watched their friendly, albeit shy interaction. Since the martial arts tournament they had started to see more and more of each other but they hadn't become official yet.

At least that's the gossip that he got form Tanya. She and Adam visited him in the hospital as much as they could since his surgery and Tanya was always very willing to let him know what was going on. Especially with Justin being part of the rangers. Despite being so young he, like Bailey, had adapted to being a ranger very quickly. His rambunctiousness and excitement about it got in his way at times, making him very impulsive, but he was learning fast. Rocky knew he would be a good fit for the team.

 _I wouldn't have chosen him otherwise,_ Rocky reminded himself. He looked down at the blankets that covered his legs, his new couch being the bed of the living room. _Though I wish I didn't have to make the choice at all._

"So I think this is the only time that I've seen your house so quiet," Adam commented.

Rocky laughed. "Yeah, it's eerie isn't it? Now that Diego and Maria are in pre-school, Antonio and Isabella are in school and Mami and Dad working, it's really startling how quiet it is. Honestly, I think I miss all of the noise. But then I start to regret that when they get back from school and all they want to do is talk about their day and play."

"And your back?" Kat asked.

"Healing very slowly. But the little ones are trying to be as helpful as possible. I'm just focusing on getting better you know?"

"And that fresh-air will do you some good, mate," Avalon agreed. "Once you get out of this house for a while you'll feel as good as new."

"Or else you're trying to get more guys to go so you can get help pitching a tenet," Jason pointed out.

Everyone laughed, Rocky easily joining in. And for the next hour they talked and joked with each other until Antonio and Isabella came home. As he asked them how their school day was, Rocky noticed Avalon's cell phone buzz and she jumped to answer it. Her excited expression immediately disappeared when she saw who the text was from and she quickly responded, putting it away.

Then Rocky looked around at his friends as his brother and sister continued to speak about their day at school. They looked just as anxious, as if they were all thinking of the same thing. What was their future going to be like once they were no longer together?

* * *

Divatox stormed back and forth across the metallic floor of her sub, pushing Pirranatrons, Elgar, and Rygog out of her way if they moved into her path. Not only did they do absolutely nothing to try and help her but they were completely useless when they did.

No, she was going to have to do this on her own. Something or anything that would get the power rangers out of her hair. She was Divatox, the space pirate that had taken over numerous planets and even conquered a galaxy or two. So how was a group of teenagers who couldn't mind their own business able to take down each and every one of her monsters?

"There's something about them that keeps them working together," Divatox mused aloud. "And if I can figure out what it is…I can take them down and be better than Rita and Zedd ever were!"

"Maybe we could keep sending down monsters," Elgar suggested. "Tire them out so that they have no choice but to surrender."

Divatox whipped around to glare at him, her ponytail swishing around to hit her in the face. "What?" She asked flatly. Elgar held up his hands and took a step back; as if afraid she was going to use her heat vision to blast him in the face. "You think continuing to send down monster is going to help? Have you not noticed that Rita, Zedd, _and_ King Mondo have all done the same thing? And look where they are now! DO YOU KNOW HOW STUPID YOU SOUND?"

She turned and started to pace again, resting her hands on her hips. _What a stupid idea,_ she thought. _I need to be more proactive with this. I can only rely on myself, these others are so stupid they can't even tell their left from their right!"_ Divatox turned and went to her periscope, lowering it from the ceiling. She looked through it, the viewfinder changing so that she watched the rangers as they left Rocky's house. They all bid goodbye to each other before going off in separate directions to their cars to go home.

Then something occurred to her.

The rangers were always together.

Even if they were apart before a monster attacked they always came back together to fight with each other. The thing that glued them together was their friendship, their teamwork. She had seen that first hand, when she thought taking on Kimberly, Jason, and Avalon would damper their spirits. And yet they managed to turn around and _still_ save them, even when Jason and Kimberly were under Maligore's spell.

That hadn't worked either; their friends saved them.

So she was going to have to use a different tactic.

"Hmmm." Divatox continued to watch the rangers until they disappeared from sight. She slowly started to smile as an idea formed. An idea that had been tried before, but she knew she could have it work. With the right distractions, with the right monsters, it could be the end of the power rangers.

It was as they said; united they stand, divided they fall.


	12. Chapter 12

**Chapter 12**

* * *

"Shift into Turbo! Mountain Blaster, Turbo Power!"

Justin morphed and stood in front of Alpha, Zordon, and Bailey. He stood before them as Bailey held up a clipboard and checked off a few things. Then she picked up an energy reader and hovered it up and down around him. Finally, Bailey took a step back and nodded.

"Power down!" Justin crossed his arms in front of him then pulled them down.

He de-morphed and turned to the three with a bright smile. "Aw, I wish I could be morphed all the time!" He cried.

Bailey smiled, crossing her arms. "Pretty cool, yeah?"

Justin's eyes shone with excitement. "Yeah! _More_ than cool! It's the best! I hope I never have to give my powers up!" Bailey nodded and turned away and Justin's smile faded. "Oh, I'm sorry. I forgot that you used to be a ranger, too."

"No worries." Bailey dusted off her hands, removing the oil that had been on them, and turned to Alpha and Zordon. "The readings show that his energy levels is still at a steady rate. So he's doing a good job of being able to control the newfound strength and power he has." She flicked her hair back from her face to look at Justin again. "How do you feel? I mean, Divatox has really been running you lot through the ringer lately."

Justin shrugged. He reached out and rubbed his shoulder. "I'm doing fine," he replied. "But it's kind of hard to get used to it. I have to lie to everyone all the time. And I'm not good at making excuses. And that constant growing when I morph…my legs are really starting to hurt."

Bailey nodded. "That's what I thought."

"The consistent growth changes that you go through, or as you humans call it growth spurts, that you go through must be wreaking havoc on your genetic makeup," Alpha declared. His hands gently waved back and forth. "I wish there was something that could keep it from happening but with the power output that comes from your morph there needs to be a stronger body to hold it."

"I guess that's why you didn't think a kid should be a ranger," Justin said.

Bailey grimaced. That had been the worst first impression to make. As it was, she wasn't angry about Justin being on the team, but was surprised and dismayed to see Rocky wasn't going to be around anymore. It didn't help that she missed out on getting to visit him after school that day. But things changed and she needed to get over that.

"I'm sorry about that," Bailey apologized. "There was just a lot to deal with at the time and…I guess I was a little annoyed—"

"That I was a ranger?" Justin pressed.

"No. That you didn't seem to be taking it seriously." She was honest in her response but she still couldn't help but feel badly about how Justin shifted his gaze away from her. He was now the youngest on the team by a lot, had a new sense of powers he had to understand, couldn't tell anyone about one of the best secrets, and was threatened to be killed on nearly a daily basis since they first came across Divatox two months before. "But it took me a bit to remember that I reacted the same way you did when I first got my powers."

Now Justin looked a little hopeful, lifting his chin. "Really?'

"Yeah, just ask Alpha and Zordon."

"The journey of the power rangers has been nothing short of tumultuous and harrowing," Zordon said. "And I don't believe there isn't anything the rangers can't do. But that isn't to say there are other things that proves to be difficult for the rangers, the responsibilities of their new duties to save the world while making sure to keep their enjoyment of their new abilities at bay. Bailey was very young when she started her journey with the rangers but has handled it with such grace and determination with anything that has come her way, despite a few instances of her excitement overcoming her. It is unfortunate that she's no longer a ranger."

Bailey nodded. "I'd love to be a ranger if I could still be one, mate. But the powers didn't choose me to continue and I have to respect that."

"But you miss it?"

"All the time. But I missed being able to be a kid, too," Bailey admitted. She slid her hands into the pockets of her jeans. "I wasn't really able to make friends until I stopped. I was always hanging out with the others. Not that it was a bad thing."

"Good thing you said that or else I would've had to make sure you knew how much of a privilege it was," Avalon commented as she walked over. Grease was smudged along her hands and her forehead as she drug a rag across her fingers. Bailey stuck her tongue out at her before asking, "You done working on the zords?"

"As well as I can be," Avalon replied. She lifted the rag to her forehead and started to remove the grease from there. "Thankfully I actually got something out of Billy's science mumbo jumbo to know how the zords operate. They just needed a bit of a tune-up."

"Cool."

"Billy was one of you guys, right?" Justin asked. He carefully pulled himself up onto the edge of a control panel, kicking his legs back and forth. "He was a ranger too?"

"Not just one of us, but the original blue ranger," Avalon corrected. "Yeah, he was the brains of the operation. He spoke to Zordon and Alpha frequently about our powers and their home life. Helped fix the zords, built some of our weapons, made our communicators." She nodded towards her wrist. "Yeah, there wasn't a lot that he couldn't do."

"I helped him make the Turbo powers as well," Bailey said. "But it was all his idea, after talking to General Norquist at NASADA and some other scientists. Though he probably couldn't made it himself if he wanted to."

"Wow." Justin's eyes widened once more. "And I thought replacing Rocky was going to be hard. I bet he was having a hard time having to replace Billy."

"Billy willingly gave up his powers so Tanya could be a ranger, there's nothing nobler than that."

"Except maybe Jason trying to save Tommy from that green candle," Avalon mused.

Bailey nodded. "Yeah, maybe except that."

"Green candle?" Justin repeated.

"Long story," the girls chorused.

"Anyway, Billy wanted to stay and work as our technical advisor. I don't' think any of us could be as strong as he is," Bailey said. She glanced at Avalon who nodded in agreement but didn't say anything else. "But you need to get that out of your head, that you're _replacing_ Rocky. You're an entirely different person, a different ranger, and bring something different to the team than any of the rest of us could. Don't allow yourself to get caught up in the way things were before."

Justin nodded. He took a deep breath, looking down at his hands. There was nothing in him that was completely different than he was before he got his powers. But things within him certainly _felt_ different. He was stronger, he was able to run faster, jump higher, do everything _better._ But how good was it when it made him so different from anyone else? He felt like he wasn't wanted when they were going against Divatox the first time; knowing the way everyone was looking at him wishing it was Rocky there instead. But he worked hard to fight against the Pirranatrons and Divatox no matter how scared he was throughout the whole thing.

Being a power ranger was so fun at the very beginning, then he got an up close and personal look with the Pirranatrons, Divatox, and Maligore and that shut down his excitement very quickly. Since then he was getting better with fighting them and not letting his excitement to get in the way, but that didn't stop him from waking up with nightmares.

"Hey." Bailey reached out and placed her hand on his shoulder. "You're doing a great job, Justin. Don't worry." She thought for a moment then looked at Avalon, who nodded encouragingly. "Don't forget, we have that camping trip to look forward to!"

"Even with Divatox still running around?" Justin asked.

"Even with Divatox still running around," Avalon confirmed. "You can't allow yourself to let everything that Divatox may be planning to keep you from living your own life." She crossed her arms. "Trust me, mate. We've had the same problems since we've started but I think we've figured out that balance by now. Right Alpha?"

"Yes, Avalon," Alpha agreed. He took a few steps towards the group. If he had a face, Justin was sure he'd be smiling. "This has been going on for a long time. Even with the first team of rangers there was a time when something else came up or there were other responsibilities that needed attending to." He then turned and Justin noticed a strange glance that Zordon exchanged with the robot. (Though he wasn't entirely sure that Zordon knew what expression Alpha was giving back). "Don't worry Justin, we're all behind you."

"Thanks, Alpha." Justin hopped off of the counter. "This really helped. But…uh, I didn't really get to show you everything that I could do with my powers! I could show you my sharpshooting, I'v ebeen working with Tommy and I've gotten pretty good."

Avalon and Bailey laughed. "Okay, let's set up for target practice," Avalon said.

"Awesome! Shift into Turbo! Mountain Blaster, Turbo Power!"

* * *

Avalon and Bailey arrived back at the Oliver house a couple of hours later to find Tommy, Jason, Kat, Tanya, and Adam in the living room, getting their things together for their camping trip. Despite only having had come up with the idea a few days before, they were aware how much work was needed to go into it and wanted to do it as soon as possible. Rocky was in charge of looking over the camping sites they would use—Kat and Tanya making sure they'd take care of the food—and Tommy, Jason, and Adam said they would handle putting a list together of the things they were going to need.

Then Avalon and Bailey were the ones who decided what to bring along in terms of entertainment. So far they had come up with bringing along a Frisbee, a hammock, and a set of cricket paddles and balls, but that was already being shot down as they went into the living room.

"None of us know how to play cricket," Tommy pointed out.

"We can teach you," Kat reminded him. "It's a _really_ fun game."

"So's bowling but you don't see Tommy jumping at the bit to play that," Tanya pointed out with a grin. Tommy glared back at her as the rangers all laughed. The last time they had gone bowling, his friends had become incredibly surprised and amused that Tommy was the worst bowler out of all of them and used it to their advantage as much as possible. For Tommy, who was used to being good at a lot of things, his good sport attitude about the whole thing dropped very quickly.

"You can't even bowl over dirt," Tommy defended himself.

Avalon slapped her hands over her face and Adam tilted is head back to look at the ceiling. Clearly he wasn't getting it. Instead of teasing Tommy more, Adam changed the subject. "Okay, let's just go over everything else. We have flashlights, tents, fire wood—"

"—Why do you need to _bring_ fire wood?" Bailey's eyebrows came together. "Can't we just chop it down ourselves?"

"In terms of the amount of weight we'll have to carry, it's better if we just get the fire wood while we're out there," Jason pointed out. He stretched out on the floor, resting his cheek in his upraised palm. He looked at his cell phone as it started to buzz then put it back in his pocket. "As it is, we don't have much space in all of our cars."

"That reminds me," Avalon said. She removed her hands from her face. "Bailey and Justin don't get out until late afternoon the day we're planning on leaving, so I'll wait behind and bring them up."

"I was going to get Rocky after his doctor's appointment anyway," Adam suggested. "So I can go up early."

"I'll go with you," Tanya offered. "So we can get some of the campsite set up."

"I'll need to borrow your car though, Tommo," Avalon said to the red ranger. "Considering I don't own my own and I don't want them to take the bus the whole way up."

"No, can do, Av. Kat and I need to talk to Principal Kaplan before we go and we were going to stop by first," Tommy said.

Avalon frowned. There went that idea. Maybe she could get Mr. and Mrs. Oliver to let her borrow one of their cars. A small smile came to her face. Funny how she still saw them as Mr. and Mrs. Oliver, not her adoptive parents. But that was something she was working to get used to. When she came back from Australia to surprise them at the martial arts tournament they were just as happy to have the girls around as they were Tommy. Even making sure that they had a great dinner cooked up as if they had just returned from college. Still, it couldn't have been easy to adopt the two and then have Tomy and the eldest adoptive child move out so soon after with college coming up.

That made Avalon frown again. She hated to think about it, but now that college was a serious thought for them, she couldn't help but think about what would happen to Angel Grove when they were gone. Even when Avalon visited her mother in Australia things were quiet. But Divatox showed up a lot sooner than she expected for a new faction of monsters to come up. And it didn't look like Divatox was going to give up so soon, through the last couple of battles with her monsters and Pirranatrons let it slip that she was still looking for Maligore. Zordon and Alpha were tracking him down as well and it was becoming increasingly worrying that his presence didn't seem to be on Earth despite knowing he hadn't been destroyed.

"That's okay, Tommy," Jason broke in, pulling Avalon out of her thoughts. "You and Kat can go on ahead. I'll stay behind and then go up with Av, Bay, and Justin. We shouldn't be too long after you two. We'll probably catch up in a few hours." He shot a smirk Tommy's way, which the red ranger pointedly ignored.

Avalon turned towards Adam and Tanya and the three exchanged glances while Kat suddenly busied herself with the list she was holding. Tommy and Kat acted like there was nothing going on between them but the rest of the rangers knew they had gone on at least five dates since they defeated the Machine Empire. Plus there was the way they looked at each other and spent more and more time together…and after the journey they went on to find Lerigot.

"Sounds like a plan then," Tommy said with a nod. He cleared his throat, arranging his long hair around his face so that it would hide his blushing cheeks. "Okay, so we've got all of the food that we need…better double up on everything since Rocky's going to have a lot of it." He tapped his pen against his chin. "Then we've got some games and fishing poles and water rafts. We've got tents, sleeping bags, flashlights, lanterns."

"We'll need batteries, too," Bailey pointed out. "In case the torches die."

"Right, we'll need that too," Tommy agreed.

Another buzzing sound filled the air and all eyes turned Jason's way as he pulled out his phone to look at the screen then put it back in his pocket once more. This time his eyes flashed a little and he briefly closed his eyes. When he opened them again he noticed everyone looking at him.

"Is everything okay, Jase?" Bailey asked. "Your mobile's been ringing a lot, yeah? Aren't you going to answer it?"

"Nah, it's just Emily," Jason replied. He hoped that would've been the end of the conversation but one thing the rangers weren't good at was keeping out of everyone's business when it came to their love lives. "We haven't been getting along lately. It was hard enough when I was the gold ranger and I couldn't tell her what was going on, but keeping what happened with Divatox a secret…"

"Jason, don't you think it's time that you tell her?" Tanya asked gently.

Jason thought for a moment before shaking his head. "I don't know," he said honestly. "I mean, I'm not a ranger anymore so it's not like that's going to be a problem as things go forward with us. But I can't tell her because I don't want any trouble."

"You know there's a chance of her getting in trouble _without_ telling her that she's a ranger," Kat added. She exchanged a glance with Tanya. "But if she knew, she could protect herself better."

"Not for her, for you guys." Jason sat up straight up from the floor and pulled up his legs. He wrapped his arms around his knees. "Being a power ranger is supposed to be a secret." He gave Avalon a pointed look. "Some of us are betting at keeping that secret than others."

"Oh, rack off!" Avalon grabbed a pillow from the couch behind her and threw it at Jason. He caught it against his chest and threw it back to her.

"And there have been many difficult things we've seen and had to do since taking the oath to be a ranger. Every now and then we've seen some of the rules surrounding it broken with disastrous results. Even for those that _knew_ we were rangers couldn't keep them safe. I can't reveal your guys' secret to her. I made that promise a long time ago and I intend to keep it."

Avalon's eyebrows furrowed together. She had no idea how he managed to do that. Jason had been right when he said she had the worst track record of them all in terms of their secret. She had to reveal herself to others more often than she would've liked to admit, but only in dire circumstances. If she was in the same situation she probably wouldn't know what to do either. Then again, she had been in the same situation with the Vipers. She was part of the gang and consistently put them in danger without telling them and it eventually blew up in her face in more ways than she could imagine.

"If that's what you think then we support you, mate," Bailey said quietly.

Jason nodded but didn't say anything otherwise. He reached up and rubbed his eyes as Tommy clasped his hand on his shoulder. The conversation switched back to their camping trip once more but this time Avalon's mind was on something else.

 _Maybe that's why Billy hasn't said anything,_ Avalon thought. _Because he wasn't completely away from the action as our tech advisor. And when he gained and lost the gold ranger powers…_ Avalon looked over as Jason gently tapped her on her leg.

"I'm guessing I don't need a penny to figure out your thoughts," he said gently. Avalon's eyebrows came together but she stayed silent. "Billy?"

Avalon thought about denying it. But she couldn't keep it in any long. It was really starting to work on her, how long he had been to of contact. It was kind of pathetic, really. They had broke up months ago and he was busy with the Peace Conference. She knew that was going to happen, he had warned her about it before leaving. _Maybe something else is going on,_ she thought.

"What do you want me to say?" Avalon asked. She leaned back against the wall behind her. "That he hasn't responded to any of my calls or emails since he left? Because he hasn't!" She started to dig her finger into the carpet. "I know we broke up; the distance was going to be really hard to deal with, kind of like with Tommy and Kim." Avalon closed her eyes for a moment, chuckling to herself. "I made fun of the two of them because of how worked up they were getting over breaking up when Pinkerbell went to Florida. But I get it now."

"Well, you're not alone there, we _all_ made fun of the two of them," Jason pointed out. His eyebrows rose and he moved a hand up beside his mouth, conspiratorially. "Quite honestly, he spent so much time at Ernie's kissing on Kim that the rest of us made bets on when they would completely miss a battle over it."

Avalon smiled a little.

"There's that smile I was looking for," Jason said.

"Have I really not smiled that much?"

"Not since Billy left, no. You haven't referred to him as 'Smurf' either."

Avalon grimaced. She didn't want him to be her only source of happiness. Not that it was a _bad_ thing that he made her happy, but to know it affected her that much when she used to be so strong. _Admit it, Av, Billy changed you. In a good way, too._ She had been so tough and standoffish when first meeting the other rangers, holding them at an arm's length and stiff-arming them whenever they came too close. Now they were her family. A smile graced her lips. She certainly could thank him for that.

"It sucks, yeah?" She said honestly. "I didn't _want_ to break up with him but…it made sense. I was going to be back in Australia then he was going to be in Switzerland for the Peace Conference and then to MIT to start freshman year and I had no idea what I was going to be doing." She rolled her eyes and smirked. "As far as I knew I was going to have an untimely end by Zordon accidentally teleporting me down into a monster fight and getting stepped on!"

Jason chuckled to himself.

"It's not funny."

"It kind of is." Then he stopped laughing and looked at her seriously. "If it helps at all, Billy hasn't responded to any of my attempts to reach out either. It was the same way with Zack and first and now Zack and I talk every now and then. You can't expect things to stay the same all the time, especially with everything we've been through. Going from being a ranger and being with your friends all the time to it being gone in a second? He's probably having difficulties adjusting. Just give him time."

Avalon lifted her chin and looked him in the eye. "You think you can do that with Emily?"

Jason gave a smile in response, but his eyes remained serious. "I don't know."

* * *

"The rangers are going on a camping trip! That's the perfect place for us to get to them!" Divatox practically squealed as she pushed the periscope away from her eyes. She clasped her hands together rand turned on her heel, her long ponytail swishing over her shoulder as she went. "Out there all in their lonesome! They'll have no one to help them when I send out my newest monster!"

"New monster?" Elgar repeated. He reached up and scratched his head. "Hey, uh, don't you think we should give up? I mean, we haven't found Maligore and these Ranger pukes keep destroying us every time!" Divatox turned on her heel and glared at Elgar. "I mean, uh, I was just kidding Divatox. I just thought maybe you'd want some time to yourself!"

"What time to myself?" Divatox sneered and shot lightning from her eyes, striking Elgar in the chest. He cried out and took a few steps backwards, hiding behind a metal pole so that she couldn't attack him again. "I'm always surrounded by you insolent fools."

"Right! You're absolutely right, Divatox!"

"And as for Maligore, I know exactly where he's gone." Divatox smile to herself. She walked over to her throne and sat down, crossing her legs at the knee. "But that's just a secret between you, me, and the stars." She twisted her fingers together, giving a deep chuckle to herself.

"The stars?" Elgar repeated. "What's that supposed to mean."

"It means he's in space, dummy," Rygog replied.

"And knowing when's the right time to reveal my entire plan," Divatox continued, ignoring her henchmen. "It's always like a lady to keep the people waiting."

At that Elgar leaned over to Rygog and asked, "When has she ever been a lady?"

Rygog shrugged in reply.

"SILENCE!" Divatox roared. "I will have you know that I'm working with some of the most evil people of the galaxies to finally crush the power rangers. It's only a matter of time; you have to take things slowly."

"That explains why nothing of ours has gone right so far," Rygog said.

That was the last straw. He looked up and saw Divatox glaring at him. "Uh-oh! Gotta go!" He turned on his heel and ran out of the captain's quarters with Divatox storming after him, her high-heels clacking against the ground, zapping the air around Elgar with lightning from her eyes and energy blasts from her fingertips.


	13. Chapter 13

**Chapter 13**

_Divided They Fall_

* * *

It was a gorgeous Friday afternoon, perfect weather for the rangers to take some time away from Angel Grove and to relax on their camping trip. There wasn't a cloud in the sky and the temperature sat at a balmy 80 degrees with a light breeze that kept anyone from becoming too hot. The best part was that with the school year almost ending, graduation not being too far away, there wasn't any homework to worry about before they left.

Rocky was entirely grateful for it. As he was stuck at home recovering from his surgery he did nothing but spend his time doing homework, watching The Price Is Right, and Spanish Soaps before his friends were out of school and they could go down to the Youth Center. His visits to the Youth Center really helped keep his day from droning on and on while he waited for his back to heal up, but it gave him time to think about his future as well. So far he had gotten in most of the colleges and universities he had applied to, but he wasn't so sure what he was going to do when it rolled around. Not just due to missing his friends, he would certainly miss them, but because of leaving his brothers, sisters, and mother. He and his father still had a very rocky relationship and he did his best to stay away from him.

He only wished it was the same with the rest of his family.

Rocky came upon a pile of sticks that would be good to add to the wood pile for their campfire and sighed, looking down at it. He wasn't supposed to bend over too far, and he couldn't lift too much. He slowly turned to the side and lowered himself into a squatting position to grab the pieces of wood. Once they were in his arms, he turned and went back to the campsite. It wasn't too hard to find, he could hear Adam and Tanya arguing from a mile away if he wanted.

Who knew trying to put up a tent and a hammock could make people argue so much? Rocky added the wood he picked up to the ever-growing woodpile and sat down on the cooler that sat nearby. He picked up a large branch and started to take off the thinner, easier to break branches off as he watched the two.

"What do you think you're doing?" Tanya demanded. She pulled her side of the hammock towards her body to tie it against the tree behind her.

Adam gave her a 'duh' look, pulling the hammock back towards him, causing Tanya to lose her footing and shuffle closer to him. "You can't tie that thing," he said to her.

Placing her hands on her hips, Tanya pursed her lips. "You're supposed tie _this_ side first." Before Adam could retort she picked up the rope on her side of the hammock and quickly slipped it around the tree. She tied a knot into it and tugged on the rope to make sure it wasn't going to come loose, then looked at Adam with a haughty smile.

In returned, Adam lifted an eyebrow. "Really? Look at your knot. That thing would snap in seconds. Like you know anything about tying knots."

"And you were a Boy Scout?"

"No, but I've been camping enough to know what I'm doing. Our tent looked like a disaster before I stepped in and fixed it."

"Well at least mine's up, look at yours."

Rocky finished breaking the pieces of wood off the branches and tossed them onto the wood pile. He rested his chin in his hands, eyes shifting back and forth as Adam and Tanya continued to playfully bicker with each other. Adam finally tied his end of the hammock to his tree, pulling it taught.

"Tommy and Kat aren't here yet?" Rocky asked.

His smile widened when his sudden voice caused Adam and Tanya to jump and turn towards him. Obviously, they weren't expecting him to come back so soon and he relished in the fact, honestly. There hadn't been too many people that Adam had been into in Stone Canyon, then moving to Angel Grove he had immediately become smitten with their classmate Sabrina, who turned out to be—unbeknownst to her—Zedd's minion Scorpina. _Then_ he had been into Dulcea from Phaedos—despite how hard he denied it—and no one else since then. Rocky knew Adam had a soft spot for Tanya and he could downplay it all he wanted, but it was true when they said actions spoke louder than words.

And Adam's actions pointed towards him being completely into Tanya. Though Rocky wasn't quite sure how things were going with Shawn continuously popping up in the yellow ranger's life when he was least wanted.

"Nah, you know Tommy," Tanya said. She turned away from Adam, effectively laser pointing her attention on Rocky. Rocky could be slow sometimes, but he certainly did notice the flush that reddened her already dark skin. "He was born late."

"Do you think we should be worried?" Adam asked.

Tanya waved a hand. "Nah, I think we should just concentrate on getting the camp together. I'm sure they'll be here soon."

In that case…Rocky rubbed his hands together greedily. "Do you think they'd mind if we started eating without them? I'm starving!"

"You're always hungry, man," Adam pointed out, sitting in a lawn chair they had brought along. He reached out and gave Rocky a high-five. "But I agree, all of that hard work on putting the tent _and_ hammock up made me hungry."

"I'm sure you guys fighting did that," Rocky pointed out as Tanya sat as well.

"What can I say, when Adam's doing something wrong I can't help but point it out," Tanya teased.

Adam twisted his mouth to the side. Rocky could see he was trying not to smile. "Excuse me?"

And that started the next round of entertainment for Rocky as the three ate their lunch and continued to wait for the rest of their friends to arrive. Once Adam and Rocky had enough, which was only half of what Rocky ate, Adam walked over to the hammock and slowly sat down in the middle, being sure not to disturb the weight and send himself flying to the ground. Then he turned and stretched out his legs and put his arms behind his head.

"The secret of this thing is no sudden movements. You just have to relax."

Tanya crossed her arms. "Right."

"I'm serious. Come sit." Adam patted the space on the hammock next to him. Tanya hesitated for a second before lowering herself onto the hammock as well. Stretching out her legs, she crossed them at the ankle, resting close to Adam's side. "See?"

"Hm, you're right."

Rocky took that as his cure to leave. He got up from the cooler, making sure his food was safely put away before saying, "I'm going to check out the rest of this campsite, maybe call the others and see how far away they are." He turned to Adam and gave an exaggerated thumb up and a wink, making Adam's cheeks turn red. Rocky chuckled to himself when Adam shot him a glare and viciously waved his hand in his direction, letting him know to 'stop it'.

Rocky held up his hands and backed away from the campsite. He walked around for a few minutes, following the path he found while collecting firewood. Taking in a deep breath Rocky closed his eyes as he walked. The fresh-air was certainly doing him some good.

But his good mood was immediately disrupted when he heard rapid footsteps coming his way. A sense of dread immediately flew over him, recognizing the sound as a monster. He turned around just in time to find what looked like a flame monster. Flamite leapt overhead and turned back to Rocky, kicking him hard in the chest. Rocky cried out in pain as he collided with a tree behind him and fell to his knees. Pain radiated up and down his back in waves.

"It's time for a ranger roast!" Flamite cried. Rocky slowly managed to push himself back so that he sat on his heels, but couldn't move any further than that without pain paralyzing him.

He was a sitting duck.

"Adam! Tanya!" He managed to cry.

"Got a match?" Flamite asked. "Never mind, don't need one!" He brought up his arms and when he brought them down it was like time slowed for Rocky. He could see the air warp around Flamite's mouth, as if there was already a source of heat there.

Clenching the muscles in his legs, Rocky flung himself to the side as a blast of fire roasted the area he had just been standing in. He looked up, peering through the trees to call for his friends again. This time he could see the two scrambling to get off the hammock at his call, both collapsing into a heap on the ground as they did so. Finally, they got to their feet and started to run towards Rocky, only stopping when a Putra Pod suddenly appeared in front of them.

Tanya skidded to a halt as she and Adam fell into a fighting stance. "Another one of DIvatox's calling cards."

"Let's do what we always do and take him down!" Adam said. "We have to help Rocky."

Ignoring the pain that continued to plague Rocky, giving him momentary instances of paralysis, Rocky fought hard against Flamite. He couldn't use his full arsenal of moves or else he'd injure himself permanently, but held him off all the same. Adam and Tanya used their fighting skills to attack the Putra Pod, who seemed to be stronger than the ones they had encountered on the _Ghost Galleon_ the month before. Still, it was kind of slow and a little dim-witted, making it easy for them to take it down with the hammock before going to help Rocky with Flamite.

They jumped into the fight, allowing Rocky to get a safe distance away to rest against a tree. His chest heaved up and down as guilt washed over him. Here were his friends working hard to fight for him and he could do nothing but sit back and watch, hoping to regain enough strength to show why he was a ranger before.

"Guys!" They heard Alpha's voice through their communicator. "Tommy, Kat, and the others are in trouble!"

"We're in a little trouble, too, Alpha," Rocky replied. "We'll try to be there as soon as we can."

"It's no use," Tanya said after Adam had been knocked back by the Flamite monster, also jumping out of the way of a fire blast that nearly set his hair on fire. "We'll need to morph!"

"You got it," Adam agreed. He and Tanya pulled out their morphers. "Shift into Turbo! Desert Thunder, Turbo Power!"

"Dune Star, Turbo Power!"

The two morphed and continued to fight Flamite, using their weapons and blasters to fend him off. Still, his fire blasts were too strong, the heat becoming too much for them to bear as they came too close. Even Rocky, who was a safe distance away, could feel the heat singe the hair on his arms and face. Then as soon as Flamite arrived, he left in a blast of smoke.

"What?" Adam cried. "Where'd he go?"

"That's not important right now," Tanya reminded him. "We have to go help everyone else."

"Right." They turned and hurried over to Rocky, grabbing his arms. They helped him off the ground, moving carefully in case they caused him more damage. Grunts of suppressed pain escaped Rocky's lips as he was pulled to his feet. "First, let's get Rocky to the Power Chamber."

"No," Rocky protested.

"But Rocky, you need to rest," Tanya said gently.

"No, I need to be here to help you guys," Rocky denied.

Tanya tightened her grip on his arms. "You can help us back at the Power Chamber."

"No, I need to be there to help you guys. I'm okay." Rocky turned and looked directly where Adam's eyes were in the helmet. "I promise. I'm fine. Just…let me help before I can't anymore."

Adam hesitated before nodding. Then he got the coordinates from Alpha and he, Rocky, and Tanya teleported in beams of Green, White, and Yellow light.

* * *

Kat smiled. She stretched her arm out the passenger window of Tommy's truck and gently moved her hands in a wave along the wind that blew past her. Then there was a sudden gust of wind and her hair flew up into her face and eyes. In the driver's seat, Tommy laughed as Kat did her best to pull pieces of hair from her eyes and unsticking them from her lip-gloss.

"It's not that funny," Kat said to him.

"It's kind of funny," Tommy replied.

Reaching out, Kat gently pushed Tommy's arm before reaching for his ponytail. "We'll see how funny it is when you have to suffer through it." She grabbed his hair-tie and almost had it free before Tommy raised his elbow and moved her hand away from him.

Their laughter echoed through the cabin of the truck. Tommy reached up and grabbed her hand. He pulled it to his lips, kissing the back of it, causing Kat to blush and look down at her lap.

They hadn't been dating for so long but she continued to get butterflies around him. So far, they hadn't said anything to their friends, despite their obvious suspicions. It wasn't that they wanted to keep it a secret from them, but that it was kind of private. Kat was always kind of shy so when she asked Tommy if they could keep things between them for a while she was nervous of his response even though he agreed to it. (Though she knew he was mostly saying it due to Avalon's, Bailey's, and Rocky's repeated inquiring questions about the status of their relationship). He and Kimberly had always been so open with their feelings for each other, despite Tommy stating he had been shy about it as well.

Not that she was comparing the relationships either; it was hard enough knowing she was compared to Kim so much as the newest pink ranger. Or at least she did. She was coming on her own through the Zeo and Turbo powers but she couldn't help the comparison sometimes. And Kimberly was always nice about it, giving advice whenever the girls talked on the phone.

"At least you were on time today," Kat said, finally finding her voice. "I'm impressed. And so was Mr. Kaplan."

Their meeting with him that morning had gone well. It was going to be a surprise for the others but graduation was certainly going to be memorable this time around. It was also hard for them to believe it was going to be one the last times they would walk the halls of Angel Grove High and Tommy telling Kat of some of his memories there, his first few days being ranger free and the ranger duties since they had been fun. Still, they both knew they were going to be facing some difficulties when the summer ended and she went off to London to work at the Royal Dance Academy and he traveled with his uncle to race cards.

They didn't talk about it much.

"I'm always on time," Tommy defended himself. Kat turned and gave him a look, raising a blonde brow, her blue eyes widening slightly. Tommy shrugged and admitted, "Except for the time's I'm late."

Kat smirked; glad he finally admitted it and looked out the window, taking in the sprawling scenery around them. "Man, this is going to be a blast," Tommy said, obviously sharing in her feeling of excitement as well. "I just love to go camping, look at all of this!"

"Yeah, me too." Kat nodded in agreement. She let out a wistful sigh, already feeling less stress about the future the further they got away from Angel Grove. "Justin was so excited that he woke up at the crack of dawn to make sure he had everything together before going to school."

"I don't think anyone is as excited as Justin is," Tommy agreed. "Becoming a ranger, all of this."

"I worry sometimes, though. Bailey stopped being a ranger because she wanted to be a normal teenager for a while, and started to have friends who were her age. Rocky says that she, Isabella, and Diego hang out with each other every weekend."

"Yeah, before then she only hung out with us. And before _that_ she only hung out with Avalon because they couldn't have too many people get close to them. Now that it's all over, I wonder how she's getting by, but she seems happy. And, obviously, she can't stay too far from being a ranger since she helped Billy create the Turbo powers." Tommy chuckled. "Sometimes I wonder how the rest of us will deal with it, too, since we'll have to think about it sooner than later. But days like these…they come a dime a dozen. I can't put a price on it."

"Me too."

Tommy and Kat smiled at each other as they blasted down the empty street towards the campsite. It shouldn't be too much longer before they reached the rest of their friends. Jason and Avalon shouldn't be too far behind them either.

All of a sudden, a strange sound reached Kat's ears. The only reason she noticed was because other than the radio softly playing a classic rock song there wasn't anyone or anything else for miles that would've made sound. Then it grew louder as the seconds passed and she and Tommy leaned over to look in the passenger mirrors to see what was coming up behind them.

It was a horde of Pirranatrons riding on motorcycles!

"Oh man," Tommy breathed.

"Should've known they'd be up to something," Kat said, looking out the back window of the truck. "Divatox would never let us have a day to ourselves." She turned back to Tommy, pulling her hair over her ear. "What're we going to do?"

"Hang on!" Tommy replied. He put the pedal to the floor, shifting gears as the truck sped up along the road. But the Pirranatrons continued to keep up with them. A shriek escaped Kat's lips as Tommy suddenly pulled on the steering wheel, driving the truck off the road and onto the dirt and grass that ran beside it.

Kat continued to bounce around in her seat as the truck raced over the uneven terrain. The Pirranatrons veered off the road behind them and continued to follow on their motorcycles. No matter which way Tommy turned the truck, Divatox's footmen continued to follow them.

"They're gaining on us!" Kat continued to look out the back window of the truck and to the path in front of them as the seconds passed. "Tommy, hurry!"

She cried out again as the truck suddenly lurched forward and there was a loud cracking sound. Smoke started to fill the cabin, making the two cough. The Pirranatrons were starting to send out blasts of energy from their bikes, striking the truck. The flat bed of the truck was so light that when the energy hit it, it came up off the ground.

"Whoa!"

Tommy continued to try and hold onto control of the motorcycle but knew he was losing it fast. Seeing there was no other option, he quickly turned to the pink ranger and barked, "Jump!"

"What?!"

Kat's eyes widened with terror at Tommy's command. But Tommy didn't slow down. He reached over and started to push on her shoulder. "Hurry, Kat. Jump! Jump now!"

Not needing to be ushered anymore, Kat unbuckled her seat belt and quickly pushed open the passenger door. She hesitated for only a second before leaping out. Her shoulder hit the ground hard. It was like she laughed herself against concrete as she threw herself from the moving van. The momentum they were going made her roll across the ground for a few long seconds before she finally came to a halt. Scrambling to her feet, she watched as the truck continued to veer back and forth with Tommy still inside and the Pirranatrons racing after it.

Kat got to her feet and reached towards her pocket for her morphing key, but found nothing there. She must've dropped it in the fall and with how fast they were going along with how far she had rolled, it was going to be hard to find it. She had to help Tommy.

The truck finally came to a stop and she could see Tommy starting to pull himself out of the driver's seat. The Pirranatrons raced after him and shot out a few more blasts of energy. "Tommy, look out!" She screamed.

Tommy looked over his shoulder just in time to react to the blasts heading towards him and leapt away. The truck exploded with the onslaught of energy, the blast of energy sent him flying to the ground where he lay prone.

"Tommy!"

Abandoning her morphing key, Kat raced after the Pirranatrons and her fallen friend. Her heart pounded in her chest as she pumped her arms and legs, working hard to make it to him. Finally, she was in close enough reach to leap high and kick a Pirranatron in the back, knocking it off its motorcycle.

The other Pirranatrons turned her way and Kat let out a low curse before turning and running in the opposite direction. She wasn't a coward, she would do her best to get the Pirranatrons away from Tommy, but without her morpher it was going to be hard. Still, Kat ran as far as she could before the Pirranatrons surrounded her.

She looked around for a few moments before starting to fight.

* * *

"Bay, come on!" Jason called towards the Oliver house. His eyes searched the windows to see if he could see any movements from her room and sighed when he saw nothing. He leaned against the side of his car, crossing his legs at the knee. "We're going to get there past sundown if you don't hurry up. Driving on the mountains, I'd prefer to be able to see."

And he didn't want to get too far behind Tommy and Kat, who had left a half hour before.

"You're going to be waiting a while longer, mate," Avalon remarked. She pulled her sunglasses down her nose, revealing the annoyance that flashed through her brown eyes, and gestured towards the Oliver house. "As organized as she can be, sometimes she takes it too far to be _too_ prepared."

"We're going to miss everything," Justin moaned, sitting on the ground. He ripped out handfuls of grass, tossing them aside every few seconds. "If I knew we could've skipped school for this I would've done it."

"With your grades you couldn't afford to skip," Avalon said. "If you're as smart as Bay says."

Justin shrugged modestly.

"Is it just me or do you have the feeling we're starting to become surrounded by really smart people?" Jason asked Avalon.

She smiled in response. "I know the feeling; mate and I know it well." She ran a hand through her hair. "Did you know that Tommy is suddenly getting As left and right? As if he wasn't the guy that would walk into Study Hall every day asking 'is this study hall?'. And that was on top of being late, forgetting his homework, and getting his classes mixed up."

Jason laughed. He could believe it. Somewhere in Tommy he knew there was a student who was one of the best, it just took some time for it to come out. He had to admit it was funny watching him continue to get flustered and wonder what it would take for it all to click together for him. Okay, maybe not getting straight As, but at least having a better work ethic.

"And he's deciding not to go into college, huh?" Jason asked.

"He's going to spend some time with his uncle working on cars and racing them. If you can imagine, Mr. and Mrs. Oliver weren't too keen about his plan as soon as they heard it, yeah?"

"I don't doubt it. But you know Tommy, when he gets his mind set on something it's hard to get it off it. This isn't an opportunity he wants to miss, so he'll take it as far as he can. Besides, we can't all graduate early."

"That's just because of transferring credits and busting my ass these past couple of years. I reckon I wouldn't have gotten so far if it wasn't for Ms. Appleby giving me a break and working with me on as much." Her eyebrows rose. " _And_ if Bay wasn't on me about my studies, and if Billy didn't get on my case, and if I didn't have you guys around me all the time."

Now Jason turned to face her, looking offended. He wasn't sure how to take that. The tone of her voice was kind of flat, like she was teasing him, but her words were nice enough.

Avalon seemed to have noticed his look for she said. "Take it however you want, mate. Half the time you guys annoyed the hell out of me."

"Excuse me?"

"You were all such goody-two-shoes about _everything_ that if I ever said a curse Kim would practically slap me. I had enough people looking at me like I was a freak, I didn't need you to do it, too. Plus you'd _never_ leave me alone."

"I didn't hear you complaining."

"You weren't listening hard enough."

They laughed.

They were so caught up in their laughter they didn't notice Bailey had left the house and was standing with Justin, watching the two, waiting. Finally, she spoke up, "Are you done?" Her voice startled the two, making Avalon take a step away from him, as if suddenly ashamed. "I'm ready to go!"

"What took you so long?" Justin asked.

Bailey lifted an eyebrow and waved papers in her hands. "Directions."

"Tommy gave me the directions before they left," Jason explained. He looked at the clock on his dashboard. "That was about a half hour ago or so. He and Kat seemed really eager to get out of here."

"That's because he and Kat wanted to be _alone_ ," Avalon said, causing her and Bailey to both laugh.

Justin blinked innocently at the two of them. "Then why did Jason want to drive you so badly?"

Jason ignored the question and turned to Bailey, asking why she insisted on printing out other directions. The slight frown on her face as her eyes shifted back and forth between him and her sister let him know she wasn't going to let him off the hook for not answering the question anytime soon. "It's good to be prepared," she said instead. "And as for Tommy and Kat, Av's right on the whole 'alone' thing."

"But they said they weren't together," Justin pointed out.

"Please," Avalon snorted. A smirk came to her face. "You'd be surprised how many times I've managed to 'accidentally'"—she used air-quotes around the words— "interrupt Tommy and Kat when they were 'just studying'. They can say nothing's going on between them all they want but I'm pretty sure you don't kiss someone you don't have anything going on with."

Jason raised an eyebrow. "I don't believe that."

"Do you always have to bring that up?" Avalon looked at him out of the corner of her eye.

"Bring what up? I didn't say anything."

"We both know what you're talking about because you seem to find it bloody hysterical to tease me about it all the time."

"I don't know what you're talking about. But clearly you do considering you're accusing me of something I haven't done."

"Shut up."

Avalon went to the passenger door of his truck and wrenched it open so hard the others were surprised it didn't come off in her hand. She pulled the seat forward to allow Justin into the back while Bailey and Jason went to the driver's seat to get in there. Jason opened the door to let Bailey in and turned to her, finding her staring at him, arms crossed.

"What?" He asked.

"Nothing, mate." Bailey smirked before climbing into the seat behind him and he got into the driver's seat. Jason closed the door and made sure the windows were adjusted correctly before taking off from the front of the Oliver house and heading towards the mountains.

Not long after they started Justin and Bailey started to talk about the homework they had to do over the weekend, discussing something about math that neither Jason nor Avalon could keep up with, all the while looking at, trading, and battling with Pokémon cards, leaving Jason and Avalon to listen to their conversation while hip-hop played on the radio.

Avalon's upper lip curled after a few hours of the same thumping beat. "Can we listen to something else?" She asked.

Jason smiled. "What's the matter? You don't like Hip-Hop?"

"It's not my favorite," Avalon admitted. "And you don't really look like the kind of person that would be into it." She wiggled her fingers mockingly. "Too many bad words."

"Emily said the same thing," Jason remarked. He changed hands on the steering wheel, leaning back in his seat. "But I got into it because of Zack. It was the only music he would listen to until I forced him to try out the Rolling Stones and Pink Floyd." Then he realized what he had said and held his breath, waiting for the question that was going to come.

'What's going on with you and Emily?'

'Are you still fighting?'

'Have you told her about being a ranger yet?'

But it didn't come.

Instead, Avalon brought her knee up to her chest, gently drumming her fingers against them, as she looked out the window. Just from looking at her profile Jason could see she was smiling about something. He couldn't help but feel a little curious, especially since she hadn't smiled so much since arriving back in Angel Grove as they had stated earlier.

"You're in a good mood," Jason remarked.

"Yeah, I'm excited for this weekend," Avalon agreed. "I haven't gone camping in a long time. Dad used to take me and Bailey." She shrugged, raising and lowering her left shoulder. "It was one of the few times dad would relax about anything."

"Your mom didn't go?"

"Mum hates bugs and not having a nearby bathroom," Avalon explained.

Jason laughed. "My mom's the same way. Must be something that all moms do."

"Along with freaking out when the toilet paper runs out. I reckon you're right." Avalon turned towards him. "How are your mum and dad anyway? I haven't talked to them in a while."

"Well, unless you need a lawyer anytime soon I'd say that's a good thing," Jason remarked.

"No worries there. I'm trying to stay as far away from that part of my life as possible." Avalon sat up straight in her seat, almost as if regretted having said it. Jason followed her gaze and looked through the rearview mirror to see if Justin noticed. He had his nose buried into a book listing the official rules of the card game while Bailey argued the move he just made couldn't be done.

Then he turned his gaze back to Avalon, who visibly relaxed. "Do you think at some point you won't be so ashamed about it?"

"I think I'll eventually be able to think about it without the crushing feeling of guilty, but to not be ashamed? I don't think that's possible. I did so much bad stuff—"

"—you were desperate to make sure you two could stay alive."

"Normally I'm the one that's trying to make excuses of the whole thing, why are you doing it?"

"Because after everything we've seen, ranger duties and not, I'm not quite sure being 'right' and 'wrong' is as black and white as everyone likes to think it is." He looked down as Avalon reached out to change the radio station and shot out his hand, pressing it on top of hers. "My car, my choice of radio station."

"Well, your choice fucking sucks."

"Too bad."

Jason then noticed his hand pressed firmly against hers and glanced at Avalon. She was looking at their hands as well, but wasn't making any move to remove them. Jason quickly pulled his hand away. He started to apologize but Bailey's shriek grabbed her attention.

"Look out!"

Jason jerked his head back towards the road, seeing Kat suddenly appear in front of him as she ran across the road. Then Pirranatrons shot across the street on their motorcycles. Jason pulled hard on the steering wheel, the sudden movement causing Avalon, Justin, and Bailey all screamed in surprise as they were taken along for the ride. Finally, Jason pulled the truck to a stop and the four clambered out, hurrying over to Kat.

"Kat!" Bailey shouted as she ran. "Kat! Are you okay?"

"Where's Tommy?" Jason added. He and Avalon skidded to a stop next to her. Kat grabbed onto Jason and pointed towards his truck that was pulled over, plumes of smoke curling into the air.

"Tommy!" Avalon shouted. She and Jason started to run towards him but were stopped by Pirranatrons that blocked their way. Jason grabbed onto Avalon's hand, pulling her away as the two backed away from the monsters.

"They ambushed us," Kat explained, finally catching her breath. "We were on our way up and they came out of nowhere."

"Divatox must be up to something!" Justin cried. He fell into a fighting stance and kicked at a Pirranatron that revved close to him. It fell of its bike and fell to the ground, arms and legs flailing.

Bailey mimicked him, taking down some of the Pirranatrons herself. "She wouldn't be doing this for her health."

"You guys take care of the Pirranatrons, we'll go help Tommy," Jason said.

Bailey and Justin nodded and continued to fight the Pirranatrons. Once there was a break in the circle, Jason, Avalon, and Kat ran in the direction of their fallen friend. They had to move slower once they heat from the flames burning the air. From where they were, they could see Tommy still lying unconscious on the ground.

"Tommy!" Kat called. She started forward but was suddenly grabbed by a Pirranatron from behind. "No! Let go!"

Jason ducked as a Pirranatron swung a fist towards his head. He rolled on the ground and kicked it in the chest, sending the Pirranatron onto its back. He did a kip-up back to his feet and did a high arching kick to knock it back down once it tried to get back to its feet.

Avalon quickly dropped to the ground as a Pirranatron did a fling kick towards her head. She rolled backwards to keep from getting kicked once she was down, then got back to her feet, sending strong punches and kicks into the Pirranatron. Soon they became overpowered by the Pirranatrons that encircled them, Bailey and Justin being dragged over from where they had been before.

Tommy's lifeless form was picked up by the arms and slowly dragged off the road.

"Tommy!" Kat cried.

"No!" Avalon shouted.

"Bring him back!" Jason shouted.

Jason, Kat, Avalon, Bailey, and Justin fought hard to break from their grasps, but couldn't break free and could only watch as Tommy was dragged away.


	14. Chapter 14

**Chapter 14**

* * *

TJ Johnson couldn't help himself. He _had_ to say something. This girl sitting across the aisle, singing above the music that blared out of her headphones, was not only disturbing everyone else on the bus. That was obvious by the grumblings murmuring up behind and around him.

But also, that she wasn't very good. Her screeching wasn't hitting any of the right notes. Despite that, her eyes were closed and she continued to belt things out as loudly as she wanted. Still, TJ couldn't help but smile a little bit. She clearly didn't have any confidence issues and truly did believe she had a good voice if she didn't care that she was bothering others.

 _Or maybe she's trying to make this boring bus drive a little more entertaining,_ he thought. Still, he couldn't resist. Pulling off his own headphones, TJ reached over and tapped the girl on the arm. Her eyes opened and she turned to him with a light, frustrated expression.

"What?" She asked.

Well, she nearly yelled it over the sound of her music that continued to pour from her headphones. "I'm sorry, could you just— "

Before TJ could finish, the girl spoke again. "I'm sorry, I can't hear you!"

TJ's smile widened. "I know." He motioned towards his ears and the girl sighed, pulling her headphones off. "Not that I'm not enjoying your serenade, but I think you're starting to bother the other passengers. Just singing, maybe, a little too loud."

"Oops." The girl grimaced, glancing around the bus. Her cheeks flushed a little, making her dark hair stand out against her skin, dark eyes shining with amusement despite the embarrassment of the situation. She quickly wrapped up the cord of her headphones, glancing at TJ with a sheepish smile. "I do that all the time."

"You get carried away sometimes?"

He was sure the answer was yes. TJ was a people person, always able to find the good in everyone, always able to read them a little bit better than others. This girl, he could tell, had a lot of spunk and had a lot of energy. She didn't care much for what other people thought of her but was also empathetic and sensitive of their feelings.

She nodded. "Tell me about it."

The two smiled at each other before their conversation fizzled out. She turned her head to look out the window next to her, leaning over the man that sat in the seat next to the window, snoring loudly, newspaper resting on his chest.

Clearing his throat, TJ held out his hand to her. "I'm TJ."

"Cassie." She seemed grateful for the introduction. Or for someone to talk to. Either way, the bright smile that came to Cassie Chan's face made TJ chuckle to himself.

"So where are you headed?"

"Stone Canyon."

"Really?" TJ's eyebrows lifted. He had heard of Stone Canyon. His old school had played against them in sports every now and then. They were a pretty good team, really good competition. But coming from where they had just left hours ago, it seemed a little far away.

"Yeah. I've got some relatives out there. They're going to help me crash the music scene." There was a second of silence before she quickly sat up straight, realizing it was polite to ask him about his plans as well. "What about you?"

"Angel Grove," TJ replied.

At the words he felt his stomach flutter. Not just because of the possibilities of moving out there for school, but because of what everyone knew of Angel Grove. It was the city of brotherly love—at least on the West Coast—but was also the city that made his parents worry. There were monsters coming up all the time. His mother made sure to remind him of that when he started to make his plans to leave. But TJ and his father reminded her that the Power Rangers were around to protect him if things ever went south.

That wasn't the only thing that made him worry. It was baseball, too. He was starting to get really good and scouts were becoming interested in him. His father noticed and knew there was a chance he could get scholarships and thought it was a good idea for him to go out there and get as much training as possible. TJ jumped at the chance, not just for the sport, but because of the travel. He always wanted to go to Angel Grove and after having had the opportunity come up, he couldn't miss it.

"It's my dad's idea, sort of," TJ replied. "He was a pitcher in the minor leagues. His friend Jake Rizeti lives there and he says Angel Grove has a killer baseball team and I can grow there."

"Then you must be good," Cassie said. She shifted in her seat to face him, flicking her long hair off her shoulder. "Going to another city to get some more training must be a good thing."

"I don't want to brag."

"Brag away."

"I might have some scouts looking at me." TJ waved his hands, not used to the attention. He was a modest boy and would prefer not to brag about himself. "What about you? With your singing?"

"That's what _I'm_ going to find out." Cassie's eyes lowered. "If I'm any good."

The bus pulled up to a bus stop, instructing everyone that they had about twenty minutes before they had to get back on the bus. Cassie and TJ climbed off the bus and immediately went into the convenience store to get some snacks.

On the back of the bus, Ashley Hammond waited for the other passengers to move out of the aisle before she got her chance to get up. But they were moving very slowly. With a low sigh, crossing her legs, she looked over at the young teen sitting in the seat across from her and caught his eye. He seemed to be as impatient as she was, rolling his eyes and motioning to those ambling along in front of them. Ashley smiled a little and tried to stifle her giggles, hoping not to bring attention onto them.

Finally, the aisle cleared and it was just the two of them there. Ashley and the teen boy got up at the same time and started to move into the aisle, bumping into each other.

"Sorry," Ashley said, taking a step back.

"No, no, that's my fault." The boy held out his arm and motioned for Ashley to go first. She thanked him and stepped out into the aisle. As they moved towards the front of the bus, Ashley said over her shoulder, "I'm Ashley."

"Carlos Vallerte, nice to meet you."

"Nice to meet you, too." The two stepped off the bus and strolled towards the convenience store. "So, I noticed you when you got on. You were carrying a soccer bag with you?"

"Yeah, I'm going to Angel Grove High to play for the soccer team," Carlos explained. "I just transferred there."

"Oh really?" Ashley's eyebrows rose. "I go to Angel Grove High!"

"Is it a good school?" Carlos's gaze dipped towards the ground. "I'm not that worried about it, but moving to a new school can be hard."

"Yeah, Angel Grove is great! I'm finishing my junior year now," Ashley explained. She brushed her hair over her ears, eyes scanning the post cards and little knick-knacks lined on the shelves in front of her. "And Angel Grove is pretty cool too if you can ignore the constant lockdowns for monster attacks."

"Are they as intense as the news makes them seem?" Carlos asked.

Ashley flashed a teasing smile his way. "Why? Are you worried about it?"

Face flushing red, Carlos made a show of picking up a travel guide and flipped through the pages. "No! It's just…kind of weird, you know? You can be minding your own business and the next thing you know, there's a ten-foot monster barreling your way." He shrugged and put the book down. "My mom worries. I just wanted to let her know things would be okay."

Now laughing, Ashley reached out and placed her hand on Carlos's shoulder, gently shaking him. "Everything's going to be great. Hey, when we get there I can show you around! I'll show you the mall, the Youth Center…that's the best hangout. Great food and everything. And of course, I can show you the high school and let you know all of the good teachers. But you want to stay away from Principal Kaplan."

"Is he that bad?" Carlos asked.

"No. It's just that he can be a little eager to be a good principal." Ashley smiled. "Don't be surprised if you get a reprimand for something very little."

"Well, I've gotten in enough trouble back home that I need to stay away from here." Carlos's gaze dropped, as if he said something he hadn't meant to. Ashley started to ask him about it but he abruptly dropped the travel guide and turned to look at another rack of maps, crashing into Cassie as he did so.

"Hey!" She cried out, dropping her sunglasses to the ground. "Watch where you're going!"

"I'm sorry, I didn't see you there," Carlos apologized. He tilted his head, looking at the girl for a long moment. "Hey, you were the girl singing on the bus."

Cassie winced. "Oh no, you heard that?"

"I don't think anyone could miss it," Ashley said sheepishly. She reached out her hand towards Cassie. "I'm Ashley, this is Carlos."

"I'm Cassie." She vigorously shook Ashley's and Carlos's hands. Then she pointed to another teen boy that stood behind her. "This is TJ."

TJ turned at the sound of his name and turned around to find Cassie speaking to other teenagers. He grinned towards them and waved his large hand before placing them on his hips. "Hey. So I guess you heard her little show for us."

"How could you miss it?" Carlos asked.

Ashley frowned and elbowed him in the side. He looked at her in confusion, rubbing the spot she had just bruised. Ashley smiled sweetly at Cassie instead of apologizing. She didn't need to know the two had shared looks when she started belting loud enough for the whole bus to hear. If she was that embarrassed about it, it wasn't a good thing to mention.

"I mean, not that it was bad or anything, just that I…haven't heard anyone with your voice before," Carlos said. He felt relieved when Cassie nodded. He certainly talked himself out of that one. Glancing at TJ he could see the African-American teen grinning behind Cassie. TJ's smile widened when he caught Carlos's eye and Carlos smirked.

At least TJ was smart enough not to rat Carlos out. He had the feeling that Cassie was a firecracker when she wanted to be.

Ashley took a step closer to Cassie, tilting her head to the side. "You want to be a singer?"

"Yeah, that's why I'm headed to Stone Canyon," Cassie explained. "It's not too far from LA and I have some family there that can help me out."

"Oh." Ashley felt a little bit of disappointment. She didn't know why, but it seemed like this girl was someone she really wanted to get to know. She certainly was more outspoken than anyone Ashley had ever met. "I was just telling Carlos that I go to Angel Grove High. I could've shown you around." She turned to TJ. "And you, too. Are you headed to Angel Grove?"

TJ nodded and stared to speak, but was cut off by Cassie, who clearly enjoyed knowing the information about everyone. "Mhm. He's going to play baseball. He's got scouts and everything."

"Really?"

"I'm not _that_ good."

"Hey, I'm going there to play soccer," Carlos said, motioning to the ball in his bag. He picked it up and twirled it between his hands. "Maybe we'll run into each other."

"Hey, yeah that sounds good." TJ looked over his shoulder, hearing the bus start up. "Hey, let's get going. We don't want to be left behind." Ashley, Cassie, and Carlos all nodded and followed him outside. Ashley stepped up to get on the bus then stopped when something on the horizon caught her eye.

"Huh?" She took a step back to the ground.

"What's up, Ashley?" Carlos asked.

Ashley shielded her face and looked at the horizon. Yeah, she saw what she saw alright. There was smoke twisting and twirling in the sky nearby. And…if she listened hard enough, it sounded like someone was struggling. Like they were in trouble.

"Look."

Pointing in the direction of the smoke, Ashley turned her companions' attention their way. TJ immediately frowned and moved his hands up to his eyes to look closer. Then he took a few steps forward. "Sounds like someone needs some help." He started to jog off into the street.

"Wait!" Cassie cried, alarmed. "Where are you going?"

"I've got to help them. Whoever it is. I can't just leave them there!" TJ called back.

Carlos hesitated a second before dropping his bag and running after him. Ashley and Cassie exchanged a glance. Ashley really was torn; if there was anyone that was in trouble then those two would help. But then there was the bus. If they missed it, who knew when there was going to be another one. Ashley bit her lower lip then immediately made up her mind. Abandoning her bags on the bus, she took off after TJ and Carlos. Behind her, she could hear Cassie groan in frustration before her footsteps thudded behind Ashley as well.

It took a few more minutes of running before Ashley could hear the bus roaring to life and disappear down the street.

* * *

Avalon, Kat, Jason, Bailey and Justin continued to fight as hard as they could. But once they knocked down one of the Piranhatrons another one would replace it, attacking harder. This was different. When they fought Piranhatrons before, they could be knocked back easily. There was always a monster they were trying to protect to make sure things for Divatox would move seamlessly before the rangers got the upper hand.

This time there was no other monster thy were to face and they were on their own. Divatox had to have planned something especially evil if only the Piranhatrons had managed to drag Tommy away and if they were the only ones around to make it so that they couldn't fight as hard.

Avalon kicked at the chest plate of a Paramutation but it grabbed her foot. She tried to twist to the side, to displace her balance, but the Piranhatrons twisted with her, moving her foot backwards. It pushed hard and Avalon stumbled, crashing into Jason before the two fell to the ground, allowing a kick from the Piranhatron to strike him in the ribs as he went down.

"Gah!" Jason grabbed his side, eyes squeezing shut.

He curled up into a ball to protect himself, the Piranhatrons moving in around him.

Avalon placed her hands on the ground and balancing her body weight against her bent arms, she did a quick leg sweep across the ground, knocking them away. She then got back to her feet and moved back into her fighting stance. "You okay, mate?" She asked over her shoulder.

"Yeah," Jason groaned. "Never better."

Kat ducked low as Bailey used her back as a step-stool, leaping into the air and kicking two Piranhatrons in the face. The fell over like dominos and she turned around, fighting once more. Kat was surprised for a moment, watching the young girl fight. Her fighting style looked so familiar, her strength and force keeping the Piranhatrons at bay. Then she realized her fighting style was a mixture of her own smarts as well as the skills Tommy had implemented into her over the years of her martial arts training.

She smiled a little, before she turned back to fight the Piranhatrons once more. She couldn't smile now. Not when Tommy was in trouble. They had no idea what the Piranhatrons wanted with him but it had to be had if he was taken so easily. Especially as Tanya, Adam, and Rocky hadn't shown up yet. They had to have been busy, too.

"Alpha!" Kat called into her communicator. She ducked out of the way of a punch then returned one herself. "Tommy's gone. The Piranhatrons got him. We need help!"

"Tanya, Adam, and Rocky have their own problems," Alpha said. His voice wobbling with worry. "Divatox sent down the Flamite monster and they need your help, too!"

"Aw great, just when we really need them!" Justin cried. His arms were grabbed and he was forcefully flung back onto the ground. He quickly made work of those Piranhatrons and grabbed the upper hand once more. "We'll have to morph!"

No sooner did the words leave his mouth was there more sounds of fighting. Kat looked over in surprise, pulling her hair back from her face, when she spotted four teenagers had joined the fray, attacking the Piranhatrons with all they had.

"Are you guys okay?" TJ asked.

"Don't ask them that, ask us," Cassie replied. She was hit in the stomach and backed up a few steps before flinging herself forward once more.

"I guess we should've listened and stayed on the bus," Ashley said.

"Too late for that now," Carlos said. He went over to Jason and grabbed his arm, helping him off the ground. "You okay, man?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," Jason groaned. "Just…just go help them."

"You guys have to get out of here," Kat said to them.

"Who are you? And what's going on? Why are these creeps after you?" Ashley asked.

"Don't worry about that now," Avalon said firmly. "You need to get out of here and to someplace safe. Before things get even more aggro."

"You mean it gets worse than this?" Ashley asked.

Suddenly there was a blast form a blaster and Tanya and Adam raced in front of the ground with Rocky hobbling along behind them. Bailey gasped and she and Jason hurried over to help him. He nodded his thanks their way, moving his arms around their shoulders to slowly walk to them. Adam and Tanya took care of the rest of the Piranhatrons before they disappeared.

"Alright, the Power Rangers!" TJ cried.

"Wow, I never thought I'd see them in person," Ashley gasped.

"Is everyone alright?" Tanya asked.

"Yeah, we're all fine," Cassie said.

"But I think these guys' friend is missing," TJ explained.

Adam turned to Avalon and asked, "Uh, miss, what happened to your friend?" The hesitation of his voice was audible, knowing they had to keep their identities a secret.

Avalon glared at Adam, letting him know she didn't find the situation amusing at all. Mostly because she didn't particularly like being called 'miss'. She was sure he was grinning in some way, despite the situation. "He was taken by the Piranhatrons."

Carlos wiped sweat off his forehead before spitting towards the ground. "That's what those freaks are called? Man, I don't ever want to come across them in the dark."

"I don't want to come across them again at all, "Cassie said.

"The Piranhatrons chased us down, ran our car off the road and attacked," Kat explained quietly. She wrung her hands together. "Tommy was knocked out and they took him. I hope he's okay." She pressed her hands together tightly, fingertips turning white.

"You guys get out of here," Tanya said to the four newcomers. "We'll need to talk to these guys so we can get an idea of what happened to their friend. But I don't want anything to happen to you."

TJ hesitated, his eyes shifting. "Are you sure?"

"Yes." Adam nodded. "Thanks for your help."

TJ, Carlos, Ashley, and Cassie nodded before turning and walking away. They were going to leave the rangers to their jobs, but it was still hard to do. Avalon could see it in their eyes, they looked torn trying to decide to let them go or continue to help. The rangers waited until the group was far enough away before teleporting to the Power Chamber.

Rocky immediately fell to his knees, grasping his back. Bailey and Justin crumpled under his weight and the two slammed to their knees as well. Adam and Tanya powered down and Adam ran to his best friend, helping him to his feet, taking him from the younger kids.

"We need to get him to the medical bay," Bailey explained. "I need to run a scan on his back."

"I'm fine," Rocky grunted.

Nevertheless Adam forcibly took him to the medical bay as the others filled Alpha and Zordon in on what was going on. "Is there any way we can track him, Zordon?" Kat asked. She continued to wring her hands together, chewing on her lower lip as well.

"We have been trying since the Piranhatrons first took him," Zordon said. His voice boomed over the rangers. Despite the stoic expression on his face, they could hear the concern in his voice. He had grown to be a father-figure to all of them and now one of them were in trouble again. It had to be hard to not know where he was.

Avalon knew that feeling very well. She ran her hands through her hair, letting out a long breath. "Is there any way we can try to track his energy output from where we had been?" She asked.

"So far we haven't found anything to link to, but we haven't found anything," Alpha said. "Ay yi yi. It's like something is blocking his link to the morphin grid."

"Divatox really thought about this one," Tanya said.

Justin snorted. "I don't think these guys ever think. I think it's luck."

Jason started to say something. Then he stopped, turning his head to see that a new image had picked up on the viewing globe. He pressed his hand to the side that continued to throb and, wincing, shuffled closer to the viewing globe. He let out a low sigh, shaking his head. "Guys, you might want to see this. Looks like Justin was wrong, Divatox really has planned things out this time."

They watched as the Flamite monster rampaged through the city, knocking buildings down and sending out big balls of fire. "Oh no," Tanya groaned. "That's the monster that attacked us back in the mountains."

Kat ran her hands over her face and through her hair. Then she rested her hands on the back of her head, briefly closing her eyes. She shook her head, as if trying to shake away what was going on. "Not now. We have to save Tommy."

Avalon clenched her teeth, thinking quickly. Part of her agreed with Kat. They couldn't stop the Flamite monster if the whole team wasn't there. They needed him at least to be able to have all the zords work together. But if they waited that long, when they didn't have a backup plan, then there'd be too many lives lost. As it was, she could picture the people in those buildings that were being attacked, burning, screaming in pain and fear. She couldn't stomach it. No. _Tommy would want us to help them first and that's what we're going to do._

"I've got a plan," Avalon suddenly announced. "They wouldn't be expecting any non-rangers to go find them, so Jason and Bay will have to find Tommy. Stall them enough to get him out of whatever jam is going on. And the rest of us will take down the Flamite."

"Do you think that's a good idea?" Jason asked.

She turned to him with a raised eyebrow. "Are you doubting yourself?"

"No, I'm thinking rationally," Jason explained. "If we take too long to find him, for him to get back to you….the zords might be destroyed by then. Or worse."

"We don't have a choice, we need to stop Flamite," Avalon insisted. She clenched her hands firmly. "Just long enough to keep him from torching Angel Grove. And Tommy'll get there when he can. He may be late all the time, but the bloke always shows up in the end."

"Av's right," Tanya agreed. "We have to go." She hurried to get Adam and Bailey.

"But what about Rocky?" Justin asked.

"He'll be okay, we'll keep an eye on him," Alpha reassured him.

Justin nodded.

"You guys ready?" Avalon asked.

"Ready," came the reply.

Avalon pulled out her morpher. "Shift into Turbo!"

"Mountain Blaster, Turbo Power!"

"Desert Thunder, Turbo Power!"

"Dune Star, Turbo Power!"

"Wind Chaser, Turbo Power!"

"Wild Fire, Turbo Power!"

* * *

Tommy groaned, eyes fluttering open. The first thing he noticed was the darkness of the room around him, with only a sprinkle of light coming from the cracks in the ceiling above him. Then he realized the pain in his arms and looked up, noticing his hands bound above his head. He shook his head, feeling pain suddenly shoot through it, radiating from a spot by his temple.

A bead of blood rolled down his cheek, loosened form his movement. He must've been hit hard. Shaking his head once more, his vision came back into focus and he tuned into the sound of crunching footsteps coming his way. Then a hand drifted around his body, moving around his back, giving his rear-end an ample squeeze, to his front where the fingers caressed his chest.

He stared into Divatox's eyes.

"Now that I have you here," Divatox purred. "I want you to beg for mercy." She reached up and grabbed onto Tommy's jaw in her hand, squeezing it tightly. "I want you to beg me to free you. To repent for all of the pain and suffering you put me through!"

Tommy's jaw ached, feeling Divatox's fingers press roughly into his skin. Her fingertips pricked him, making him bleed. He swallowed hard, jerking his head to force Divatox's hand away.

"In your dreams, Divatox," he groaned.

Instead of snarling in frustration, Divatox's surprised him by smiling. Her eyes flashed despite the darkness of the cage. "I was hoping you'd say that," she said. She took a step back and there was a sudden flash of lightning so bright Tommy had to close his eyes.

When I faded he looked down at the abyss stretching below him. Horrific moans and groans escaped the abyss, dark, shadowlike hands reached for him, lightning flashed as he watched. A cold wave of dread spilled over Tommy and he jerked his wrists, hoping he could break free of his restraints. But they held him tight.

"The Vortex of Eternal Doom and Sorrow," Divatox explained. She kicked a rock into it, the two watching as the rock began to fall, bursting into flames as it did so. The moaning cries turned into loud shrieks of excitement, the shadow hands scrambling for it. "I wouldn't want to go down there, it looks positively nasty." She grinned at Tommy once more. "Be sure to tell me how it feels."

"Once I get free, you're going to regret this, Divatox!" Tommy snarled.

Divatox merely laughed. She snapped her fingers and a saw appeared over the rope that kept Tommy anchored to the wall. Tommy started to fling his arms. He had to get out of else he was a goner.

"Hang tight, don't go anywhere," Divatox said. She snapped again and the saw started to shift back and forth along the rope. Tommy could feel the rope already starting to loosen under his weight. "Poor Tommy, the last thing you'll ever see will be those hands, pulling your way to your doom."

Tommy grunted, trying to pull his hands free. He had to move fast or he was history.

Piranhatrons were guarding him and there was nothing else he could do.


	15. Chapter 15

**Chapter 15**

* * *

Avalon, Adam, Tanya, Justin, and Kat teleported down into Angel Grove where the Flamite monster continued to attack the buildings. Flames crackled around the streets and buildings around them. The citizens of Angel Grove steamed past them, screaming as running as fast as they could. Across the way, they could see Bulk and Skull working hard to get people to safety, dressed in their police uniforms. Though they couldn't see them, they could hear Lt. Stone shouting down a side street as well, hurrying them along.

"Oh man," Adam breathed. "This is worse than I thought." He brought his arm up to cover his face as there was a flash of bright light from a nearby metal trash can that suddenly imploded.

Flamite laughed uproarisly, stomping towards the rangers. His footsteps which wouldn't have even moved a stone when he was smaller, shook the ground so much that the rangers had trouble staying on their feet. Even the people running were tripping and falling over themselves to get away.

"You're doomed!" Flamite's voice boomed around them. "Run you little worms, run! The Power Rangers can't save you this time!"

"Oh, yeah?!" Justin cried. "What do you think we are!"

"Insignificant bugs!" Flamite cried. He lifted his foot and stared to drop it down on the rangers. They quickly dive-rolled out of the way. "Take this!" Flamite brought his hands up in front of him, gaining energy. Then he lowered his arms and shot out a blast of fire to the rangers.

Avalon, Kat, Tanya, Justin, and Adam all cried out as the flames struck them. They thrashed back and forth, trying to remove the flames form their suits. Avalon frantically patted herself and when the flames were down she started towards the Flamite, but was stopped by Piranhatrons appearing in front of her.

"Oh great, not these guys!" She cried.

"Let's take them down and then get to the Flamite," Adam said. He turned to Bulk and Skull. "Get these guys out of here!" He cried.

"You got it!" Bulk replied. He moved to the other side of the street and continued to wave the citizens of Angel Grove forward and to safety.

"Come on, hurry up!" Skull said.

"Let's go, guys!" Tanya called.

"Right," Kat and Justin agreed.

And the rangers raced into battle with the Piranhatrons. Kat and Justin hurried to a fallen fire truck where the Piranhatrons had scared away the fire fighters. Justin raced to the back of the fire truck and grabbed a fallen hose. Looking around, he found it was plugged into a fire hydrant and grinned. "Yes!" He turned back to the Piranhatrons. "You guys getting a little hot?" He called. "Why not cool down!?" Justin opened the floodgates and allowed the water to fly out and soak the Piranhatrons. The force of the water knocked them off their feet and onto the ground.

"Good going, Justin!" Kat called.

She leapt up into the driver's seat of the truck and quickly closed the door. The Piranhatron that tried to get to her crashed into the door and fell to the ground. Kat then forcibly opened the door and knocked another Piranhatron to the ground. She leapt backwards and another Piranhatron fell into the seat. Kat lifted herself up over it and kicked another Piranhatron in the face.

Avalon raced forward and slid under the bottom of the fire truck, with the Piranhatrons trying to chase after her. Chuckling to herself, she found that they got stuck, and quickly slid out from the other side. She climbed up to the top of the fire truck. "Head's up!" She called and pulled out her blaster. Flipping off the top of the truck, Avalon fired her blaster at the same time, striking the Piranhatrons. They blasted apart, shooting backwards into the street.

Adam and Tanya took on the Piranhatrons together, using each other as anchors when attacking them. Tanya pressed her back against Adam's and looped her arms through his. Adam leaned forward, lifting Tanya off the ground, and gave her the right height to kick a Piranhatron directly in the face. Then he lowered her to the ground. The two turned to each other and locked hands before spinning in a circle. After a few revolutions, Tanya leapt up off the ground, with Adam using his weight and sense of balance to keep her off the ground, and her outward swing arched her around to kick a few in the face. Then she landed on the ground and did the same for Adam to come off the ground and kick others as well.

But wave after wave of Piranhatrons continued to come after them.

"There's too many of them!" Kat cried. "If we don't do something soon the Flamite monster is going to destroy Angel Grove."

"We have to keep going," Avalon replied. "We don't have a choice!"

* * *

TJ, Cassie, Carlos, and Ashley continued toward the bus stop. But no matter how far they went, it didn't seem like they were getting any closer. Ashley had already started to lag, quietly grumbling and wiping sweat off her forehead as she went. Not that she couldn't handle it, but being out in the open like that after having been attacked by those monsters was not very high on her list. But they had a topic of conversation they couldn't quite stop talking about.

TJ couldn't anyway.

"Pretty amazing running into the Power Rangers," TJ said. The grin on his face hadn't left since having run into the Power Rangers.

"I know! It was so awesome," Carlos agreed. He hadn't stopped smiling about it either, especially once the adrenaline had worn off. "Think about the things they're doing for mankind. Saving people…"

"And it's done a lot to help the city," Cassie agreed. She trailed behind walking with Ashley, arms looped together. She was kind of trying to keep her walking, to keep her pace up, but she wasn't in a rush either. That fight really took a lot out of her. More than she thought it had once it started. "Angel Grove is still as happy as ever."

"Yeah, not including how many times it's been threatened to be destroyed," Ashley joked. She brushed her hair behind her ear. "Yeah, it was totally awesome."

"Hey, look!" TJ came to a sudden stop, pointing towards the dusty ground. The four crowded around his discovery; a footprint in the sand that was covered in green slime. "Didn't she say that thing that took her friend was covered in slime?"

"Looks like it could be it," Ashley agreed.

Cassie walked a few feet over and looked at the continuing path. "Tracks! And they head up into the hills."

TJ, Carlos, Cassie, and Ashley all looked at each other, silently. As if they were all debating what was going to happen. But there was no choice to make. If someone was in trouble, they needed to help them. They needed to do everything they could. Together, the four turned and followed the path up into the hills, all until they found an opening to a cave.

In the cave, Tommy continued to struggle against the ropes. He could feel himself continuing to slowly be lowered down. Piranhatrons guarded him, holding onto spears that they poked him with when he struggled too much. He blinked in surprise when Jason and Bailey suddenly teleported into the cave.

"Tommy!" Bailey cried.

"Jason! Bailey!" Tommy called back. "Boy, am I glad to see you!"

There was the sound of rapid footsteps and the three looked over as TJ, Cassie, Carlos, and Ashley raced into the cave. TJ looked around the room, taking in Tommy's stance over the Vortex of Eternal Sorrow and Doom. "Oh man," he breathed.

"Are you Tommy?" Carlos asked.

Jason took a step forward. "Get out of here," he warned. "You don't know what's going on!"

Bailey took a step back as there was a sudden wave of Piranhatrons that filled the cave. Divatox seemed to be watching them closely if they were suddenly brought down. _Or she's starting to realize her plan isn't going to work,_ Tommy thought. He grunted, shifting his wrists, trying to pull at least one hand out to pull himself up.

"Run!" Bailey cried. She ducked out of the way of a Piranhatron coming to fight her.

"We can't just leave you here," Ashley protested.

"Look out!" Cassie cried.

The four teenagers backed away as Piranhatrons leapt to attack them. TJ and Carlos immediately started to fight back against the Pirhanatrons while Cassie and Ashley escaped their grasp, racing towards Tommy to help him get down.

"STOP!" Tommy shouted, his voice echoing around the cave.

The girls stopped at the edge of the vortex, almost falling into it. They backed a few steps away, eyes widening as the shrieking and moaning continued from the vortex. Lightning flashed and shadow hands reached up towards them.

"What _are_ those things?" Ashley's face twisted in disgust.

"Trust me, you don't want to find out," Tommy said. He held his breath, swinging his legs back and forth. His body slowly started to move along with the rope's swing. He continued to feel his hands slip. He needed to be careful when he finally got free or else a wrong-timed swing would send him directly into the Vortex.

He kept swinging. Jason and Bailey continued to fight the Piranhatrons, though they managed to make progress, moving them back out of the way. Clear enough that they could get on Tommy's other side as he swung backwards. Finally, just as he was about to make it clear, his hands about to slip, the rope snapped. Jason leapt forward and tackled Tommy out of harm's way as Ashley and Cassie grabbed the end of the rope, to keep from keep it from dropping down into the Vortex in case it dragged him down.

Relief washed over Tommy, but he didn't have the time to revel in it. He needed to get down and help his friends. "I don't know who you guys are," he said, quickly brushing the rope off his arms. "But I can't thank you enough."

"Yeah, I don't know what we'd do if he got lost down there," Bailey agreed. She stood by Tommy's side, waiting until he was back on his feet before giving him a huge hug.

"Let's get out of here, before the place starts to explode or something," Jason said.

"Oh man, a few more seconds and I was toast," Tommy shook his head. He whipped around, hearing the sound of what was like a rush of flames. The same thing he heard seconds before his truck blew up. Peering at the horizon, Tommy could just barely make out the silhouette of the Flamite monster. "Oh man, that's coming from Angel Grove."

"The Flamite monster is still attacking," Bailey reported. "The Power Rangers went down to hold him off until the red ranger could get back."

"We should get out of here," Jason said, glancing at Ashley, TJ, Cassie, and Carlos. "In case those guys decide to come back or something."

"Right." Tommy started away then stopped, turning back to the rangers. "What are your names?"

"I'm TJ." TJ brought a hand up to his chest then motioned to the others. His new friends. "And this is Cassie, Ashley, and Carlos."

"Well TJ…" Tommy held his hand out to him. TJ took it and shook it firmly. "Thank you."

TJ shook his hand back, nodding. Then he turned to go away. But stopped, realizing none of them knew their names. He turned back then stopped, finding the dusty desert stretching out in front of them.

"Where'd the go?" Ashley asked.

"More importantly, who are they?" TJ asked.

* * *

The rangers continued to fight the Piranhatrons as hard as they could. But it seemed like no matter how many of them came up, there was another one to take its place. Avalon punched one in the face as hard as she could then turned back, striking another one with her heel. "This is just great, as if we didn't have enough to handle," she snapped.

"We don't have a choice," Adam reminded her. "We have to keep going."

The ground beneath their feet suddenly shook, causing them and the Piranhatrons to fall hard to the ground. Another wave of screams arose from the citizens of Angel Grove when Flamite walked around the corner and towered above the rangers. "There you are!" He charged another powerful fire blast towards them. "Hasn't anyone said if you play with fire you get burned?"

Flamite suddenly cried out as a blast of energy struck him in the chest. He stumbled backwards and the rangers turned around to find Tommy, suited up as the red ranger, running towards them. "Hey guys, sorry I'm late," he said.

"Tommy!" Kat threw her arm around his neck. Tommy reached up and hugged her back.

"Good to see you, man," Adam said.

"Tommy, are you alright?" Justin asked.

"Yeah!" Tommy clenched his hand into a fist. "What do you say we kick this up into high gear and take that guy down?"

"You got it," Tanya said.

"We're right behind you," Avalon agreed.

Tommy nodded back. "Alright guys, time to take up the heavy artillery." He led the call with the rest of the rangers. "We need Turbo Megazord power, now!" Their zords came out from their hangars and raced towards the rangers, coming together to create the Turbo Megazord. The rangers turned and leapt up into the cockpits of their zords. "Alright, let's give it to im'!"

Flamite stomped toward them. "Ready when you are!" He laughed maniacally, shooting smoke out of his mouth. It blasted towards the Turbo Megazord and surrounded it in a thick cloud of black smoke.

"I lost visual," Avalon said. She frantically pushed buttons on her control panels. "The smoke's too thick."

"Hang on," Kat said. She controlled the Turbo Megazord, opening up the fans on the front of the zord, blowing the cloud of smoke away. Flamte's laughter immediately stopped, taking a few steps back when the smoke disappeared.

"Hey! Wait! You weren't supposed to do that!" Flamite cried. He growled, clenching his hands. "Okay, if you like that, you'll love this!" Fire bombs appeared in his hands. He clenched them hard and threw it towards the Tubro Megazord. But they bounced of, harmlessly blowing up in mid-air.

"Yeah!" Adam cried. "The shield is holding!"

"I'll take it from here," Tanya said. Now piloting the Turbo Megazord, she launched them off the fournd and towards Flamite, her zord piece of the Turbo Megazord glowing yellow. It struck Flamite across the face, knocking him to the ground.

"My turn!" Justin called. He pushed forward on the joystick in his control panel. "Turbo Megazord Saber!" The Turbo Megazord shot towards Flamite, who started to wave his hands back and forth in protest. "Let's put this fire out for good!"

"You got it, Justin," Tommy agreed. "Turbo Megazord, spin-out!"

They Turbo Megazord started to rapidly spin, adding momentum and power to the saber that slashed across Flamite. Flamite screamed in fury as he fell to the ground and blew up.

The flames smoldering Angel Grove slowly blew out.

* * *

It took over a week for Angel Grove to go back to the way it was before. But that hadn't put a damper on what was to come. Graduation was going to be that weekend and the rangers were excited for the day to arrive. With celebration parties already lined up for them to attend, there was something else they needed to come to terms with, their futures. It was a tough conversation for all of them but they knew it had to be done.

Kat was going to be going to London to enroll in the Dance Academy. Due to that announcement Tommy made a firm decision on his plans to work with his uncle on a racing career, not wanting to turn down what could be a once in a lifetime opportunity. Ironically, it was the only time they had announced that they were dating, saying they would try to make things work long-distance. Completely with a small kiss and a hand hold that made Tanya squeal and Adam clap and Rocky roll his eyes and say 'it's about time'.

Adam and Tanya were going to go to college. He wasn't sure what he was to major in yet but he wanted to go. Tanya already had her ideas, musical theatre, that way she could continue to work on a singing career and get a grade for it.

Avalon was going to head back to Australia. They had already stayed longer than anticipated after having been stuck with Divatox has a new villain for them to face, but it was time for them to leave. Jason and Rocky were staying in Angel Grove, Rocky to recover and Jason so he could start business school. How else was he going to start his own gym without the knowledge he needed?

But there were one or two glaring things they needed to work out. One of them more important than others. Thankfully, Zordon and Alpha realized it as well and after a few days of talking, everything was set in motion. The rangers gathered together in the Power Chamber for that very special event.

"Is everything all set?" Tommy asked. He turned to look up at Zordon, possibly for the last time.

Zordon nodded back, a similar expression of sadness and completion in his eyes. "Yes, Tommy, they're all ready," Zordon said.

Alpha walked over to a wall panel and it slid open with the rangers walking inside. The room was dark, lightning flashing in their ranger colors as the seconds passed. "Zordon and I are honored to gather here to remember the service each of you have dedicated to being a power ranger."

Tommy, Kat, Adam, Tanya, Avalon, Justin, Bailey, Rocky, and Jason all stood before them, nodding quietly.

"Your courage and loyalty knows no bounds," Zordon boomed. "However, as each ranger reaches your stage of life it becomes our duty to set them free to discover all that the world has to offer them. Alpha and I are very proud of the work you have done for this city and for this planet. And we will miss you all." Zordon paused, allowing the weight of his words to sink in. "To that end, you have been asked to select and outstanding individual who will take over as your successor. We welcome them now into the Power Ranger family."

The room suddenly illuminated with bright flashes of colorful light. Then when the darkness faded TJ, Cassie, Ashley, and Carlos stood on the large formation of rocks in their new ranger colors. In their new Turbo ranger suits. They all looked at each other in wonder as the now former rangers looked on in pride.

Tommy was the first to take a step forward. "I wouldn't be standing here, TJ, if it weren't for your courage and strength." TJ's smile widened. "I choose you to lead the team as the new red ranger."

Then it was Tanya's turn to step forward. "You showed compassion and integrity Ashley." Ashley beamed, looking down at her helmet then back up at Tanya. "I choose you with pride to be the new yellow ranger."

"Cassie." Kat clasped her hands together. "You came to my defense when other people may have run away. I know you to be loyal and trustworthy. You will bring great honor as the new prink ranger."

"Thank you," Cassie said. "I'll make you proud."

Then it was Adam's turn. He cleared his throat before starting, reaching a hand up to rub his nose. "You'll be the new green ranger, Carlos." Carlos nodded, his new helmet tucked under his arm like a soccer ball. "You've proven yourself to be decisive and intelligent."

"What about me?" Justin asked. His eyebrows came together as he looked up at his friends. The teens he had fought as a ranger with for the last six months, the ones who had seen him as something more than a little kid that followed along behind them. He let out a light cry as he was suddenly teleported up onto the rocks with the others, wearing his blue ranger suit.

Justin beamed along with his new teammates. Then his smile faded as he looked down at his former ones. This was a change he hadn't seen coming so soon.

"Justin, you will continue on as the blue ranger," Alpha explained.

"You'll continue to make us proud," Zordon said.

"Yeah," Rocky agreed. "Maybe teach them a thing or two while you're at it."

The group laughed then turned to Avalon. She took a deep breath and placed her hand on her little sister's shoulder. "I want to give my powers onto Bay to be the next orange ranger. Not only would none of this be possible without her hard work, but she's as strong and tough and _compassionate_ as I'd want any of my successors to be."

Bailey smiled back at her. "Thank Av, but…I can't take it," she said. Surprised gasps came around her. Bailey reached up and wiped a tear from her eye. "I've done a lot with this team here in Angel Grove. But it's like Zordon said, we have to see what the rest of the world has for us. I'm young, there's plenty for me to learn. I think there's always a chance that we'll continue to be intertwined with this whole ranger thing. I'm not in so much of a rush to go back yet." She reached out and squeezed Avalon's hand. "You keep it."

Zordon nodded. "Where there is evil beware! Where there is destruction be warned! This new team of mighty warriors will know no rest! Power Rangers, the legacy continues!"

Now there was only one thing left to do.


	16. Chapter 16

**Chapter 16**

* * *

"I'm not so sure how they did it, but the idea to have graduation in the botanical gardens was a great idea," Bailey said. Her eyes lit up as she looked over a row of flowers and she grabbed her sister's arm. "Av! Look!"

Avalon smiled a little, strolling behind her sister as they walked up to the colorful patch. The flowers were of different species; roses, daisies, sunflowers, daffodils, all spread out in a planter box. But they were all of the power rangers' colors; red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and pink. Or, their _former_ colors, Avalon reminded herself.

It hadn't been too long since the rangers had given up their powers onto the next team of rangers, and they could already see they were making much progress against Divatox and her army of Piranhatrons. But it was hard to get over not being in the Command Center every day, not hearing Zordon's and Alpha's voices, not feeling a swell of pride when their rescues and adventures were blared across the TV with the city of Angel Grove thanking them, not being able to rush out to save someone when the time was right.

They'd get used to it, but it was hard.

Just as it was hard knowing that right after graduating, that weekend, things were going to change for all of them. Tommy was going to be heading out on the road with his uncle in a cross country trip, doing races along the way and Kat had to get started training before she went off to London. Everyone else was going to be around for a while longer, but things weren't going to be the same ever again.

 _Maybe that's just what I need,_ Avalon thought. _Some time to be normal._ Then she rolled her eyes to herself. _Like 'normal' is eventually going to see dad again. Nothing with him is ever 'normal'._ She smiled to herself as she went.

"What are you smiling about?" Bailey asked, finally turning back to her sister.

"A lot of things," Avalon replied.

Bailey smiled and looped he arm through her sister's and the two walked into the space set up for graduation. She immediately found Rocky sitting towards the front, his entire family sitting behind him. He smiled and waved as the two went over to him.

"Hey Rocky, how ya going?" Avalon asked, carefully sitting down so that her dress didn't rise up over her legs.

"Hey guys," Rocky replied. He smiled when Bailey moved to sit with Diego and Isabella. She had grown to be really close with them over the past year and they certainly were going to miss each other when she left. "Can you believe graduation's already here?"

"No, mate, I thought it would never come," Avalon said with a laugh. She crossed her legs at the knee and rested her hands in her lap. Then she eyed Rocky for a moment. "Did they already give you your diploma?"

Rocky glanced down at his slacks and dress-shirt, very different from the purple and gold robes the rest of the seniors were wearing. "Oh! No, I'm still going to walk…I just need all the rest I can get before going up. My back still flares up every now and then. But I'm going to a specialist soon."

"Ace, mate. That's bonzer." Avalon smiled.

"That's what I hear." Rocky laughed. "The doctor's supposed to be pretty good. I'm not hoping for much, just being able to get out of bed in the morning without it taking a half hour." He nodded behind him, where his mother and father were entertaining his youngest siblings. "And so they can get back to jumping all over me again. I never thought I'd miss it."

Avalon laughed. She understood completely. Then she lowered her voice, leaning into Rocky. "What about your dad?" she asked.

Rocky looked her in the eye and turned his wrist over to show his arms. The scars were still there, but there weren't any new ones. "They're not great, but they're getting better," he replied. "It's going to take a long time to get back to where we once were, if it happens, but…you don't know unless you try, right?"

Avalon reached out and grasped his shoulder, gently shaking it. "I'm going to miss you, Rocky."

"I'm going to miss you, too."

They turned back to attention as the music started up, cueing the graduation march. Avalon and Rocky turned to watched as their friends, donning their graduation robes walked up the aisle to the chairs that were propped up on stage. Avalon and Rocky smiled at each other, watching as Tommy, Kat, Adam, and Tanya moved up to the stage, beaming with pride. Avalon smiled to herself, noticing the small hints to their original colors that they wore; Tommy and Adam wearing red and green socks, and Kat and Tanya wearing corsages with flowers of their colors.

Even Avalon found a hard time wearing something _other_ than orange, though white and black were slowly starting to move into her wardrobe more. Rocky even stuck with his blue with the tie sitting around his neck. It was going to be hard for all of them. Tears started to come to her eyes as Principal Kaplan went on with his speech.

She never thought having moved to Angel Grove would've changed so much of her life, had her make some of the best friends she'd ever have, some of the best adventures, or even fall in love. Things were changing and while she was sad, it gave her hope for what was going to become of the rest of their lives.

"…and for the last four years, I watched you all grow and learn. And it has given me hope that the future of this great nation is secure. I am so proud of all of you as you should be proud of yourselves. I'd thank to thank you for all of these last four years or your hard work and integrity. And know that Angel Grove, the city and the high school, will surely miss you. I know many of you have decided on your college choices already and some of you are going into careers. Know that Angel Grove is your home and you will always be welcome back home. Thank you."

Avalon clapped along with the rest of the audience then grinned when it was Kat's turn to go up to the podium. Of course the pink ranger would end up being the class valedictorian. _She was always good at everything,_ Avalon thought. It was even a joke amongst their friends that she was some sort of a robot because she was good at everything she tried; everything except sewing and design, anyway.

"I'm not sure what to say," Kat said when she got to the podium. "There's so _much_ to say but I can't really put my words together. I've had more than one version of a speech ready to go and right now, I don't think the ones I prepared will convey how much everyone in this class and this city means to me. I came to Angel Grove a year and a half ago as the new kid from an entirely different country, expecting to be ostracized or seen as weird. Little did I know that there was already someone here that understood exactly how I felt." Kat nodded towards Avalon, who grinned.

Rocky reached over and gently knocked her shoulder.

"And never did I think I'd make friends the moment I stepped onto Angel Grove's high school campus. But that's what makes Angel Grove the best city to live in. Everyone here is so nice, friendly, and looking forward to the future no matter what monsters may try to bring it down. Angel Grove High is exactly the same. We're all striving towards similar goals and support each other no matter what we're going through. We're a team and we're always going to be a team. I'm really going to miss that. Although we won't be coming here every day we take with us the knowledge of ourselves and the world, the confidence to take on what life hands us, and the friendships that will last forever. For this we will always be grateful. Thank you."

The audience clapped as Kat turned and sat back down.

"Now we will be passing out the diplomas," Principal Kaplan said into the microphone. "First, we'd like to equally recognize those that have already received their diplomas in advance. William 'Billy' Cranston, Cadence 'Avalon' Oliver-Mitchell, and Jason Lee Scott."

Avalon's eyebrows furrowed. She hadn't known Jason had already received his diploma. Now that she thought about it, she hadn't seen him at the ceremony at all. Twisting in her seat, Avalon took another glance around the crowd. Towards the back she could see Ernie, TJ, Cassie, Ashley, Carlos, and Justin. But she didn't see Jason at all.

Avalon turned her attention back to the front, listening as her friend's names were called.

"Rockwell 'Rocky' DeSantos!"

"Katherine 'Kat' Hillard!"

"Thomas 'Tommy' Oliver!"

"Adam Park!"

"Tanya Sloan!"

Avalon cheered loudly for each of them. Once all of the names of their class was called, the students were instructed to stand up in front of the entire crowd. "You may now move your tassel to the other side of your cap," Professor Kaplan said. "Class of 1997, I'm proud of each and every one of you. I salute you and wish you good luck in whatever the future holds!"

With that, the audience and the graduating class all whooped and hollered as the students lifted their caps and threw them into the air. The parents' cameras flashed as the students then filed off-stage and to the waiting area of the botanical garden. Avalon hurried to Tommy, squeezing her brother in a tight hug.

"Congratulations," she said.

"To you, too," Tommy said. "Just because you didn't walk the stage doesn't mean it's not your graduation, too."

Avalon ran a hand through her hair. "Yeah, but I think I can deal without having a lot of attention on me right now." She shrugged. "You know I've never been great with it, yeah?" Tommy smiled and put his arm around her shoulders. The two noticed their parents and posed for a few pictures with Bailey before going to their friends, who had just been released by their parents as well.

They all came together in a group hug.

"I feel like a proud parent," Bailey said, making them all laugh.

"With how much you've helped us over the years, you may as well be," Adam said to her. "I bet you're going to be bored without the rest of us around."

"I don't know, I might enjoy the peace and quiet," Bailey teased.

"That sounds like something Av would say," Tanya said.

"I reckon I taught her well," Avalon said. They all laughed again. Avalon clasped her hands together. "Okay, so what's everyone doing for the summer? I plan on coming back at some point and I want stories to look forward to."

Adam smiled and nudged Tanya's arm. Tanya smiled back and looped her arm through his, lacing their fingers together. "You guys are looking at the new trainee at the KAGB radio station!" Tanya declared.

"Congratulations," Kat said, her blue eyes widening.

"Yeah, that's a great way to start your career," Tommy agreed.

"What about you, Adam?" Bailey asked.

"I'm going to be working as a stunt man at the Angel Grove amusement park," Adam said. He turned his cap in his hands. "At least until school starts."

"Yep, this boy's headed off to school for architecture." Rocky grabbed Adam's shoulder and shook it. "Later he can help me design my martial arts school and we can go into business together." His smile waned. "Hard to believe this is going to be one of the last times we'll be together."

"It's going to be so hard to say goodbye," Kat mused.

Tanya pouted and the girls hugged each other.

"Hey, let's not worry about that now," Tommy said. He put his arm around the pink ranger's shoulders. "We still have some time. We have parties to go to—"

"—and a camping trip to make up for," Avalon reminded him. "We've already got it in our schedules, the last week before school starts for you lot we'll be back and we'll have the best trip ever."

"And, hey, I think I heard something about Ernie holding the after-party, so we still have time to have fun," Rocky said. He rubbed his hands together. "Let's go!"

The group all cheered and parted to let their families know of what was going on. After stopping to greet Bulk, Skull, Sharkie, and Skull's and Sharkie's new son Spike, Avalon started to walk to her car. She then stopped, noticing a figure standing nearby, leaning against a tree, watching the whole thing. Avalon smirked and walked over.

Jason smirked back, pushing himself up straight as she approached.

"I didn't think you'd be here," Avalon said. "We didn't see you at the beginning."

"Yeah, I wasn't sure I was going to make it either," Jason agreed. He ran a hand through his hair. "These night classes have been so tough, I'm surprised I'm still standing right now."

"Maybe you should go home and get some sleep then."

"And miss this? No way. Besides, Tommy would kill me."

Avalon smiled and nodded. He probably would. Her brown eyes looked around the garden. "So where's Emily?"

There was a second of silence before Jason said, "Emily and I are taking some time apart," he said. Avalon's eyebrows rose. "Yeah, I realized I couldn't be with someone that I couldn't one hundred percent be honest with. And with the whole power ranger thing…I don't think I could ever be honest with someone who's not part of that world that I couldn't bring them into without constantly worrying."

"I get it," Avalon agreed. She tilted her head back towards the crowd. "I felt the same way about Bay before she got into everything. Though I never dated her."

"I guess the feelings are the same," Jason said.

"Sure, if you were in love with her." Avalon pressed her lips together as soon as the words came out of her mouth. It wasn't her place to say anything like that, yet she couldn't help it. She and Emily didn't really get along and it wasn't' for anything that she disliked about Emily. She didn't dislike her at all, she was just…actually she reminded Avalon a lot of herself when she was in the Vipers and she subconsciously must've been pushing that away.

Jason eyed her closely but didn't respond. Though a smile was still on his face.

"Are you headed to Ernie's for the party?" Avalon instead asked.

"I don't know," Jason said after a second. "It seems like I'd be the only one without a date if I went."

"Not the only one, I don't have one either," Avalon said. Her twitched in surprise when she found she didn't feel angry or upset when saying it. It was then she realized she hadn't thought about Billy in a little while. At least without feeling she wanted to rip his head off.

"We should go together then," Jason suggested. His eyes shifted. "And, maybe after we can go get something to eat."

Avalon gave him a funny look. "There's going to be food at the party."

"Yeah, and a lot of other people."

Oh.

Now she got it.

Avalon thought for a moment. "It'd probably be the only time we wouldn't have to worry about a monster attack interrupting things. It'd be a shame to waste it, yeah?"

Jason reached out his hand and brushed some of Avalon's hair behind her ear. Avalon reached up and placed her hand on his. She looked into his eyes then the two moved at the same time, coming together in a passionate kiss.

"You're lucky, Rudolph," Avalon said when the kiss ended.

Jason smiled at the mention of her ever-present nickname for him. "Why's that?"

"I'm not leaving for a couple of weeks."

"I've got some money, I can come visit."

Avalon thought for a moment. "Probably not a good idea to do it when Tommy does, just in case I don't tell him beforehand."

"I was actually thinking of what would happen if Kim found out." Jason thought for a second then the said, " _When_ she finds out." They fell into step with each other, heading towards the parking lot. "You know, sometimes, she can be scarier than any of the monsters we've ever faced."

"You have no idea."

But they weren't going to be facing monsters anymore.

They were moving on with their lives to see what the rest of life had in store for them.

She couldn't wait.

* * *

**THE END**


End file.
